Technology Help in Troubled Times

Photo found here.

I love reading stories that highlight the good things that we do for each other.  

This article discusses two great websites which provide free web page hosting for those in medical crisis. The following are excerpts:

By STEPHANIE NANO NEW YORK (AP) — When he was diagnosed with kidney cancer last year, Dave deBronkart needed an easy way to keep his far-flung friends and family updated. So did the president of the American Medical Association when he fell ill months ago. And so did the mother of a soldier wounded in Iraq who later suffered brain damage.

They all turned to the Internet, setting up individual Web sites to give progress reports. In return, they get posted notes of encouragement and support — all without having to repeat the details in emotional and exhausting phone calls.

"I had already been burning myself out with phone calls" telling people, said deBronkart, of Nashua, N.H.

DeBronkart, like others, used free online services like CaringBridge and CarePages and their user-friendly formats to quickly set up a Web site to share the news — good and bad. Patients themselves or family members write about treatment and recovery from illnesses, accidents or other medical crises, such as a premature births. 

The mother of Marine Lance Cpl. John Doody uses CaringBridge to keep in touch with his Marine buddies, friends and relatives in the Denver area, where he grew up, and her new husband and friends in Idaho.

Chris Ott has been at her son's side since January when he collapsed while recovering from gunshot wounds from Iraq and suffered brain damage. For a time, she stopped answering her phone because "it was too painful to talk about it."

Her sister set up the Web page and soon Ott was posting updates, writing about each step in her son's recovery, the move from San Diego to a Veterans Affairs rehabilitation center in Tampa, Fla., and outings to the mall and beach. News that her 25-year-old son had begun to talk again brought a flurry of excited replies.

"It helps lift your spirits when you know people are thinking about you and praying for you," said Ott, who was married at her son's bedside in February.

On the Net:

• http://www.CaringBridge.org
• http://www.CarePages.com