美国国家公共电台 NPR--Striving to outrace polio: What's it like living with the disease

Striving to outrace polio: What's it like living with the disease

Transcript¹

A friend of Minda Dentler texted her the news article of the recent case of polio in Rockland County, New York that led to a patient becoming paralyzed.

"I kind of was in shock and disbelief to see it in the United States," she recalls. "We have all these resources and then to hear that somebody didn't get part of the regular childhood vaccines³ and that person could get polio. It was shocking to me."

Dentler was born in Mumbai, India in 1978 and contracted polio at six months. She missed the wave of universal immunization in the country by several years. The result was that Dentler became paralyzed in her legs. She can still feel everything; she just can't tell her legs to move.

"My mother realized she couldn't take care of me," Dentler says, "so she dropped me off at an orphanage⁴."

At age three and a half, she was adopted by a couple in the U.S. "Well, I couldn't walk, right?," she says. "And my body was sort of stuck in this seated position. So I spent the first few years in America just going through a number of surgeries to basically straighten me out so I could then be fitted for leg braces⁵ and crutches⁶."

Dentler learned to handle a wheelchair and to walk by using the crutches, her legs immobile beneath her. "In the early years, it was just me trying to be like my siblings⁷," she says. "I didn't want to take the disabled bus to school. I wanted to be able to take the bus with my sister. And so I had to learn how to go up the stairs."

Once at school, she often felt left out. "I was just really embarrassed and self-conscious about the way I looked," she remembers. "And people would stare at me and kids would make fun of me. And I really found it difficult to make friends." Her family, which included three siblings, was athletic⁸; Dentler often watched from the sidelines, wanting to compete herself. "But I couldn't," she says.

Later, when she was in her late 20s in New York City, a friend introduced her to a running club for athletes with disabilities where she learned how to hand cycle: propel a three-wheeled low-to-the-ground bike using only her upper body. She met a friend in a wheelchair who'd completed a triathlon.

"I remember watching him at the finish line thinking, 'That's what I want to do next year,'" she says. "And so actually I signed up for the race without knowing how to swim or run."

Within seven months, she learned to swim and to compete using a racing⁹ wheelchair. When Dentler finished the triathlon, she was motivated to go farther. She soon took up half-Ironman distance triathlons, a distance of nearly 70 miles. And she kept meeting people, mostly able-bodied, with extraordinary athletic ambitions, which led her to attempt her first Ironman in Hawaii. That's a distance of 140.6 miles.

"At the time, no female wheelchair athlete had ever made the time cutoffs to finish that race," Dentler says. She missed the cutoff on her first try.

But a year later, she made it and finished the race in 14 hours, 39 minutes — the first female wheelchair athlete to complete the Ironman World Championship. She covered all those miles in water and on land, propelled entirely¹⁰ by her arms and upper body.

In a comment worthy¹¹ of a gold medal for understatement, she says, "I think it's important to stay physically¹² active."

Since then, she's done three half-ironman triathlons — in Dubai, Morocco and Colombia. And Dentler's also currently in the midst of another marathon — she's a mom. Her daughter Maya is seven years old.

"Even when she was very young, things were different," Dentler says. "Like when she cried, I couldn't pick her up off the floor. She knew that she had to get closer to me."

In kindergarten, some of Maya's classmates teased her about having a mom in a wheelchair. But it didn't last long. By first grade, Dentler volunteered at the school to help kids learn to read, and soon they no longer paid attention to her wheelchair. Maya was so proud of her mom she brought her in for show and tell.

"[Maya] said, 'Who wouldn't want a mom like that?,'" says Dentler. "The kids were very curious. They asked me a ton of questions and it was actually pretty fun to answer them. And the kids' eyes would get really big when they heard that I could do all of these things."

Dentler says one memory of her daughter stands out with particular clarity. "I remember vividly¹³ when she was three months old getting her first polio vaccine²," she recalls. "I just remember crying cause I realized, 'Wow, she is not going to face the debilitating¹⁴ effects of having polio like I have just because she got access to a vaccine and I chose to get her immunized.'"

Dentler has traveled to India with Rotary¹⁵ International to accompany a national immunization drive. "It was really eye opening to me," she says, "because women literally¹⁶ would travel for miles to get their children vaccinated¹⁸ for polio because they knew how much it would impact their lives if their child were to contract polio. Because we don't really see polio really impacting people in the United States, I almost feel like people forget the value of these vaccines."

When Dentler considers the current polio outbreak in New York State, she says it's completely preventable. For her, it boils down to a single word — immunization.

"I wish all people who may be on the fence about vaccination¹⁹ could really meet me," she says. "I'm a reminder²⁰ to families that they should vaccinate¹⁷ their children."

1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 vaccine   

n.牛痘苗，疫苗；adj.牛痘的，疫苗的

参考例句：

• The polio vaccine has saved millions of lives.脊髓灰质炎疫苗挽救了数以百万计的生命。
• She takes a vaccine against influenza every fall.她每年秋季接种流感疫苗。

3 vaccines   

疫苗，痘苗( vaccine的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His team are at the forefront of scientific research into vaccines. 他的小组处于疫苗科研的最前沿。
• The vaccines were kept cool in refrigerators. 疫苗放在冰箱中冷藏。

4 orphanage   

n.孤儿院

参考例句：

• They dispensed new clothes to the children in the orphanage.他们把新衣服发给孤儿院的小孩们。
• They gave the proceeds of the sale to the orphanage.他们把销售的收入给了这家孤儿院。

5 braces   

n.吊带，背带；托架( brace的名词复数 )；箍子；括弧；（儿童）牙箍v.支住( brace的第三人称单数 )；撑牢；使自己站稳；振作起来

参考例句：

• The table is shaky because the braces are loose. 这张桌子摇摇晃晃，因为支架全松了。
• You don't need braces if you're wearing a belt! 要系腰带，就用不着吊带了。

6 crutches   

n.拐杖, 支柱 v.支撑

参考例句：

• After the accident I spent six months on crutches . 事故后我用了六个月的腋杖。
• When he broke his leg he had to walk on crutches. 他腿摔断了以后，不得不靠拐杖走路。

7 siblings   

n.兄弟，姐妹( sibling的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• A triplet sleeps amongst its two siblings. 一个三胞胎睡在其两个同胞之间。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• She has no way of tracking the donor or her half-siblings down. 她没办法找到那个捐精者或她的兄弟姐妹。 来自时文部分

8 athletic   

adj.擅长运动的，强健的；活跃的，体格健壮的

参考例句：

• This area has been marked off for athletic practice.这块地方被划出来供体育训练之用。
• He is an athletic star.他是一个运动明星。

9 racing   

n.竞赛，赛马；adj.竞赛用的，赛马用的

参考例句：

• I was watching the racing on television last night.昨晚我在电视上看赛马。
• The two racing drivers fenced for a chance to gain the lead.两个赛车手伺机竞相领先。

10 entirely   

ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The fire was entirely caused by their neglect of duty. 那场火灾完全是由于他们失职而引起的。
• His life was entirely given up to the educational work. 他的一生统统献给了教育工作。

11 worthy   

adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的

参考例句：

• I did not esteem him to be worthy of trust.我认为他不值得信赖。
• There occurred nothing that was worthy to be mentioned.没有值得一提的事发生。

12 physically   

adj.物质上，体格上，身体上，按自然规律

参考例句：

• He was out of sorts physically,as well as disordered mentally.他浑身不舒服，心绪也很乱。
• Every time I think about it I feel physically sick.一想起那件事我就感到极恶心。

13 vividly   

adv.清楚地，鲜明地，生动地

参考例句：

• The speaker pictured the suffering of the poor vividly.演讲者很生动地描述了穷人的生活。
• The characters in the book are vividly presented.这本书里的人物写得栩栩如生。

14 debilitating   

a.使衰弱的

参考例句：

• The debilitating disease made him too weak to work. 这个令他衰弱的病，使他弱到没有办法工作。
• You may soon leave one debilitating condition or relationship forever. 你即将永远地和这段霉运说拜拜了。

15 rotary   

adj.(运动等)旋转的；轮转的；转动的

参考例句：

• The central unit is a rotary drum.核心设备是一个旋转的滚筒。
• A rotary table helps to optimize the beam incidence angle.一张旋转的桌子有助于将光线影响之方式角最佳化。

16 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

17 vaccinate   

vt.给…接种疫苗；种牛痘

参考例句：

• Local health officials then can plan the best times to vaccinate people.这样，当地的卫生官员就可以安排最佳时间给人们接种疫苗。
• Doctors vaccinate us so that we do not catch smallpox.医生给我们打预防针使我们不会得天花。

18 vaccinated   

[医]已接种的，种痘的，接种过疫菌的

参考例句：

• I was vaccinated against tetanus. 我接种了破伤风疫苗。
• Were you vaccinated against smallpox as a child? 你小时候打过天花疫苗吗？

19 vaccination   

n.接种疫苗，种痘

参考例句：

• Vaccination is a preventive against smallpox.种痘是预防天花的方法。
• Doctors suggest getting a tetanus vaccination every ten years.医生建议每十年注射一次破伤风疫苗。

20 reminder   

n.提醒物，纪念品；暗示，提示

参考例句：

• I have had another reminder from the library.我又收到图书馆的催还单。
• It always took a final reminder to get her to pay her share of the rent.总是得发给她一份最后催缴通知，她才付应该交的房租。