Students have a ‘Tuesdays with Morrie’ experience

As the Omaha Community Playhouse offers UNMC discounted tickets to Thursday’s 6:30 p.m. performance of “Tuesdays with Morrie,” we hear of an inspiring student experience with a patient with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

Recently, Matthew Zimmerman, Ph.D., assistant professor of cellular and integrative physiology, had family friend, Colin Farbotko, talk with UNMC’s first-year medical students.

Discounted tickets/’Tuesday’ quiz Employees can get tickets to Thursday evening’s performance for $21.50 each while students can buy tickets for $14 a piece. Call Lora Kaup at 402-553-0800 to reserve your tickets. Or, visit UNMC’s Facebook page today at noon to participate in a trivia challenge. Win and get two free tickets to Thursday’s performance.

Farbotko has ALS — also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease — a progressive and fatal neurodegenerative disease that slowly takes away a patient’s control of his or muscles. Morrie Schwartz, a character in the play, also had ALS.

In his discussion with the students, Farbotko described what it’s like to live with the condition, for which there is no cure.

“The lecture was very stimulating for the students and many of them wrote comments on Colin’s blog about how much the lecture meant to them,” said Dr. Zimmerman, who has done some research in the role certain free radicals play in the cause of ALS.

The students learned how Farbotko’s symptoms started.

“For most patients, they first notice a weakness in an extremity,” Dr. Zimmerman said. “Colin first noticed it in his left pinky and now he’s in a wheelchair.”

They also heard how Farbotko’s condition progressed and what his quality of life has been like since he was diagnosed.

“Tuesdays with Morrie,” originally a novel by sportswriter Mitch Albom, is a recount of Albom’s experiences visiting with Schwartz as his ALS progressed.