NORTHRIDGE : Doctor Stays Active Despite ALS Disease

In his 30 years of medical practice, Dr. Richard Mailman had never seen a case of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), the rare disorder commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease.

So after the Tarzana internist suffered two serious falls in the space of four months in 1982, he still did not suspect that he could be suffering from the degenerative disease of the nerve cells that control muscular movement.

“When I fell down playing tennis and hurt myself, I wasn’t concerned,” he said.

It was only after his left foot began making a loud noise while he was walking that he went to a neurologist. A muscular problem that made the foot droop and slap down on the pavement was causing the noise, he said. The next stop was the hospital for tests and a diagnosis.

“It isn’t a sure thing, but ALS is most likely,” Mailman was told by his neurologist.

He learned that his prospects were gloomy. ALS, which affects one in 100,000 people, causes a gradual deterioration of all the muscles. “The book said the average life span was three to five years,” he said. “But I knew of cases that lasted longer so I hoped I would be one of them.”

Mailman has lasted a lot longer. Now 72, he is confined to a wheelchair. About two years after being diagnosed, he was forced to give up his private practice in Northridge. “That was the hardest thing to accept,” he said. “It was emotional to give up my private patients.” But taking as his inspiration the best-selling author and physicist Stephen Hawking, who is also an ALS patient, Mailman has stayed active. For the past seven years, he has been teaching resident physicians at the Family Practice Center at Northridge Hospital. An expert in reading cardiograms, he received a lifetime achievement award from the hospital in 1990.

“He’s a very esteemed teacher whose mind is as quick as it ever was,” said Dr. Myron Greengold, director of the residency program.

Mailman is modest about his accomplishments. “I don’t think I’m much of a hero,” he said. “I’m using whatever faculties I have and trying to live as normal a life as possible.”

And while his legs are weaker, hand movements more difficult and his speech is affected, his optimism is undimmed: “Both my parents lived to be 84 and that’s a good goal for me.”