Her doctors, even the National Institutes of Health, said there was nothing to help. The Middletown, Ohio, woman was aghast. Furlong decided parents, armed with little more than desperation and bake sales, might speed research of treatments for Duchenne muscular dystrophy. But the Parent Project raises difficult questions. It's not a Manhattan project.
Muscular dystrophies are genetic diseases that cause muscle weakness of varying severity.
Duchenne muscular dystrophy strikes about 1 in 3,500 boys. First, toddlers have trouble walking. By age 12, most victims are in wheelchairs. Eventually they can't lift a fork or turn a page, and their respiratory muscles finally give out. Only steroid drugs have proved significantly beneficial in slowing muscle loss, but they don't help for long.