Laura Beckett Back Home

From the Philadelphia NBC affiliate:

Anonymous Donor Brings Laura Beckett Home

As the air ambulance carrying his sick wife touched down at Atlantic Aviation at the airport, Karl Beckett still couldn't believe the love of his life was home.

This was the moment he had been praying for the last three months.

"We’ve never been apart since we've been together. This is the first time we've ever been apart. Thanksgiving, Christmas, all that, it was just horrible," Beckett said.

Laura Beckett had been stuck in a German hospital since November where she developed a debilitating infection while being treated for RSD, a painful nervous system disorder.

Her family, unable to pay more than $71,000 for an air ambulance to bring her home, turned to NBC10.
An anonymous viewer came to the Beckett's aid, and so did many other generous people.

"You always see it on TV but you never realize stuff like this does happen,"

Karl and the couple’s two sons were there as the plane doors opened.Laura’s son Karl said his emotions ran the gamut as he saw the plane come in.

“A little bit of everything. Mixed emotions, excited, happy, a little sad, my heart was racing. I just want her to get her the proper care she needs," said Laura’s son Karl.

The couple's daughter Jillian, who was on the plane and has been by her mother’s side, was overcome with emotion.

The family can't believe so many people, friends and strangers, came forward to help them.

"I had a gentleman come to the door and anonymously give me a check. It was amazing,” said Karl Beckett.

Craig Poliner of Med Escort worked with the anonymous donor and coordinated Laura’s trip home.

"This is something that doesn't happen every day and so it is it's quite remarkable that somebody stepped up...one of your viewers and we were able to get her home,” Poliner said.

"[The donor] hasn't come forward yet, but when he does I’m gonna give him the biggest hug in the world," Karl Jr. said.

Laura can't speak or move her legs or arms, but she knows that she's back home.

The flight crew said everything went smoothly on the return.

She was immediately taken to a local hospital where doctors will re-assess her condition.

Of course we'll keep you posted.
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Cherished Readers,

That "[o]f course, we'll keep you posted" comes from the NBC affiliate, not me. I am glad Mrs. Beckett is home and on the mend. Hopefully, she and her family will enjoy their hard gained privacy and withdraw from the frenzy being whipped up.

I am both saddened and intrigued, as always, by the comments made to the series of articles that have been published about her plight, and The Weird Ones that always manage to appear when CRPS is in the media.

If I did not know better, I would be inclined to think what so many ill-informed people [mostly in the medical profession] already think: that there must be a huge psychiatric component to this disorder.

What else would cause people to malign one another with such relative glee, all the while bemoaning the intensity of their suffering. If there weren't this bizarre sense of enjoyment seeping into all the ostensibly reasonable commentary, I'd not make a peep, I swear!

I can understand aberrant behavior being attributed to CRPS -- indeed, a day does not go by that I don't aberrate all over the damned place. I know it is from lack of sleep, and yes, a steady diet of pain and unimaginable sensitivity to touch, to air, to temperature, to mood -- but it is also from social isolation and unrelieved frustrations.

Yes, yes, I know. Studies have concluded that the psychiatric symptoms of anxiety and depression as related to CRPS are the result of the disease, not a cause or integral element of it. Hooray for us! It comforts me no end that I am nuts only *because* of CRPS and did not bring my nuttiness *to* CRPS. Mwahahahaha! Of course, nothing seems to explain away the incessant whining... so I am trying to stop.

Could "we" please make an effort to refrain from trying the ketamine coma therapy in the comments sections of an emotionally driven appeal for funds by a desperate family? Stop tossing the doctors' names around as if you had any authority to judge them -- or, if you feel you absolutely must have your say, find a more suitable place to say it.

Myself? I think there has been a major overreaction about an unfortunate outcome.