Lorenzo Odone, whose parents’ battle to save him from a rare nerve disorder was depicted in the 1992 film Lorenzo’s Oil, has died from pneumonia aged 30.
Most everyone, apparently except my wife, remembers this movie. A boy develops a disease so rare that nobody is working on a cure, so his father decides to learn all about it and tackle the problem himself.
Or…
Until about the age of 7, Lorenzo Odone was a normal child. After then, strange things began to happen to him: he would have blackouts, memory lapses, and other strange mental phemonenons. He is eventually diagnosed as suffering from ALD: an extremely rare incurable degenerative brain disorder. Frustrated at the failings of doctors and medicine in this area, the Odones begin to educate themselves in the hope of discovering something which can halt the progress of the disease.
[via: IMDB]
P.S. If you haven’t realized yet, this is based on a true story.