Radio Interview Information

 

Topic: Preventing #1 Birth Defect Virus--congenital CMV

 


Radio Announcer Introduction:

Lisa Saunders, currently a fulltime writer for the State University of New York at Rockland, was thrilled to be expecting a child on Christmas Eve in 1989—exactly one year after her miscarriage.  But the moment Lisa first laid eyes on her new daughter, she was afraid—Elizabegth's head was very small and deformed. The doctor said to her: “If Elizabeth lives, she will never roll over, sit up, or feed herself.” It was determined that Lisa caught the #1 viral cause of birth defects while she was pregnant—cytomegalovirus, known as CMV. Lisa was shocked that her OB/GYNs had never warned her about CMV and how to prevent contracting it. She had unknowingly put Elizabeth’s development at risk by running a daycare center in her home and sharing cookies with her toddler.

Lisa, along with her husband, Jim, and first daughter, Jackie, spent the next 16 years raising a little girl who needed to be fed, carried and clothed. Despite the cerebral palsy and severe mental disabilities that made Elizabeth unable to speak or move, she loved being held, going on long car rides and attending her special ed school where she received daily therapy and compassionate care. When she was 11, a big, homeless dog named Riley joined the family. He became Elizabeth’s devoted companion, snoozing beside her for hours on the couch, and at times, laying across her feet to keep them warm.

By Elizabeth’s 16th birthday, Elizabeth had survived several bouts of pneumonia, seizures and major surgeries. Weighing only 50 pounds, she looked odd to strangers, but her cheerful, soul-capturing smile made her lovely to her family. Two months later, she died suddenly during a seizure. While holding her body in the hospital, Jim looked down into his daughter’s lifeless eyes and cried, “No one is ever going to look at me again the way Elizabeth did.”

In an effort to prevent other parents from making this same cry and as a way to handle her grief, Lisa now makes it her mission to teach the public congenital CMV prevention until doctors incorporate that informations as part of their standard of care. As a result of an article she wrote about congenital CMV, she was asked to be the parent representative of the Congenital CMV Foundation, to speak at the international 2008 Congenital CMV Convention held at the CDC, and to write a book about her experiences, which she entitled, “Anything But a Dog! The perfect pet for a girl with congenital CMV.”

 

Interview Questions

 

Question 1    How did it feel to tell your story about Elizabeth to an international community of scientists, health practitioners and families at the first ever congenital CMV conference held in the U.S.?
 
Question 2    Why don’t OB/GYNs warn their patients about CMV?
 
Question 3    Does someone with CMV have symptoms? How can a pregnant woman protect herself from contracting it?
 
Question 4    What made you decide to write about Elizabeth and her dog Riley as a way to raise CMV awareness? How did you come up with the title Anything But a Dog!?
 
Question 5    In your book, you mention how difficult it was for you to accept Elizabeth after she was born.  How did your depression over her condition eventually lift?
 
Question 6    What is your favorite scene in the book? 
 

Question 7    I understand that not all children are as severely affected as Elizabeth was. Can some children just be mildly affected?

 

Question 8    What is the primary message you’d like your readers to take away from this book?

 

Question 9   What can those of us in the listening audience do to make the general public CMV aware?

 

Question 10   I understand your book raises funds for congenital CMV research and parent support. How can we purchase your book?  

 

 

Bio: Lisa Saunders is the author of Anything But a Dog!, Ride a Horse Not an Elevator and Ever True: A Union Private and His Wife. She is a full-time writer for the State University of New York at Rockland Community College, a member of its Speakers Bureau, and the parent representative of the Congenital CMV Foundation. She and her husband, Jim, reside in Suffern, New York, with their beagle/basset hound. Visit Lisa at www.authorlisasaunders.com

 

 
Contact Information

 

Your Title       Mrs.

First Name     Lisa 

Last Name      Saunders

Company Name: State University of New York at Rockland Community College.

Job Title          Campus Communications Assistant (writer)

City                  Suffern

State or Province      NY

Zip or Postal Code    10901

Web Site URL (personal)             www.authorlisasaunders.com

Email                           Saundersbooks@aol.com

These interview questions will be asked by Jacqueline@fearlessfifties.com on her radio show in March.