John Stamp
May 9, 2014 – The year was 1954. Dwight D. Eisenhower called the White House home, a gallon of gas averaged 22 cents, and the television show “Father Knows Best” kept Americans captivated with Hollywood’s version of the perfect family. But, as explained in a 1954 article published in The Press-Gazette (Hillsboro, Ohio), no one knew best when it came to treating the estimated 200,000 Americans diagnosed with a strange ailment called muscular dystrophy. This “very costly disease,” the article explained, baffled researchers, and although the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA), founded in 1950, was dedicated to “seeking the cause and a cure for this mysterious and fatal malady,” insufficient research funds kept progress at bay.