[Michigan Tuberculosis Association, Theodore Werle, Executive Secretary, presents]

[Peter Borik, The Story of the Tragedy He Brought His Family]

[Scenario Wm Kulsea, Narrator Bob Clayton, Donald O. Buell Director of Dramatics,  Michigan State College.]

[Cast, Agnes... June Merz, Clara... Frances Joyner, Mrs. Borik... Mary Philips, John... Joe Davidson]

[Dedicated to the fight against tuberculosis]

[Narrator:] The story of Agnes and Clara Borik and their family could happen in your town, right next door to you...it could happen to the rich man and to the poor man.

The office worker or the farmer, a white man or a negro.

 It could happen to the young, and it could happen to the aged. It could happen to anyone.

It is the story of a willful man who refused to believe the truth. Because he stubbornly and perversely rejected the truth, he brought tragedy to those closest to him.

He turned a deaf ear to experienced men of medicine whose sought to help him in his fight against tuberculosis.

Instead, he chose to rely on the advice of charlatans and quacks. It is the story of Peter Borik and the heartaches he brought his daughters, Agnes and Clara.

The story opens on a tender note, for Clara and Johnny Carson, a young farmer who manages the Borik farm in his spare time, are in love. They hope to be married soon. Johnny is her childhood sweetheart.

His regular job, before he took over operation of the Borik farm, was driving a milk truck for a large dairy company nearby. He still does this when he is able.

Now however, Peter Borik is bedridden most of the time, and unable to work. Johnny and Clara, unaware of what the future holds for them, face life happily, secure in their love.

Hardworking Mrs. Borik, Peter's wife, lives for her children alone. A kind, yielding woman, she is resigned to a life of drudgery, and ever-constant fear that Clara and Agnes, and perhaps Johnny, might fall victim to the disease that Peter Borik carries.

It's time for lunch, and Johnny has been invited to eat with the family.

Peter cannot leave his bed. He will not go to a sanatorium. He does not believe tuberculosis is catching.

He believes he can get well by staying in bed. He wants to be near his neighbors so they can drop in and see him. He likes Mrs. Borik's cooking.

He wants to be home so he can call his wife or his daughters at any time of the day or night. The father's absence at meal time is evident. But his influence, both physical and spiritual, is felt by the entire family every time they eat.

The door beyond the kitchen stove leads to his room. From that room he can hear the familiar voices of his family. At one time he was in a sanatorium. He was not a cooperative patient.

He felt there were too many restrictions. That he did not feel sick. He left against medical advice. And since doctors cannot force patients to remain in a sanatorium, he could not be stopped.

When he left the sanatorium, he left behind the proper medical care, professional nursing attention, and the rest routine which is so essential to the tuberculosis patient. Through his ignorance, he left behind all hope, and brought home a disease which was to bring immeasurable sorrow to his family.

Peter's presence in the Borik's household has not changed the homemaking routine, although it should have, to ensure protection for the family.

Dishes used to serve his food are mixed with those used by the rest of the family. His bed linen goes in with the family laundry. The handkerchiefs he uses contain sputum, which is contaminated with tuberculosis germs.

The germs spread from person-to-person and cause tuberculosis. Peter refuses to believe this simple fact. Like measles, chicken pox or scarlet fever, tuberculosis is contagious.

Except for Peter Borik, the Borik family looks healthy. They feel well. They don't think they can catch Peter's disease. They don't know a person may have tuberculosis for three years and never have any symptoms.

In recent weeks, Peter Borik's increasingly bad condition has intensified his stubborn streak. He talks to his family only in irritable commands. His raucous coughing has increased.

The room behind the kitchen stove has become a self-imposed cell, from which he bars time-tried methods of tuberculosis cure. His failing condition is reflected in his lack of appetite.

Each day he leaves more and more food untouched on the plate, which Mrs. Borik serves him three times a day.

But tuberculosis workers know that Peter Borik left the sanatorium against the advice of physicians. They have been watching his case ever since he acted against the advice of specialists in the field of tuberculosis cure and prevention.

Now they hope to convince him to return to the sanatorium. Ever alert for cases such as these, tuberculosis workers are certain that Peter Borik will return in order to protect his wife and daughters.

Courteous and professional, the tuberculosis worker visits the Borik household. This job requires tact, for she does not want to frighten Peter Borik back into the sanatorium.

She must convince him and Mrs. Borik that he is spreading tuberculosis to his family and friends. That he'll be able to receive visitors frequently in the sanatorium.

But Mrs. Borik will have none of this. She is too familiar with the wrath of her husband and with his ideas of sanatoriums.

Mrs. Borik keeps the visit of the tuberculosis worker a secret. Both from Peter Borik and from her children.

That's why Johnny and Clara go ahead with plans to get married. Each new day brings to them new happiness as they plan for the future.

They are ignorant of the cloak of disease that is enveloping the Borik household and their lives. For how long can the human body stand up under the strain of bombardment of the tuberculosis germs?

These two youths, vigorous and gay, appear to be happy and healthy as they await the day of their marriage. But are they healthy? The tuberculosis germ has used them for targets.

Back in the Borik household, they have been exposed for months to the germs discharged by Peter Borik. Is one or both to be a victim? Perhaps they had come in contact with tuberculosis by touching an article contaminated by Peter Borik.

In the spring, Johnny and Clara are married. Peter Borik is too ill to attend the church ceremony, but unknown to all, the mark of his willfulness is with them.

It is a threat to their happiness that could have been avoided if Peter had gone to the sanatorium some time before. In fact, if Peter had listened to sound medical advice, or if his wife had acted upon the suggestion of the tuberculosis worker, he might have been cured by the time the wedding took place.

As Johnny takes Clara for his wife, and promises to protect her in sickness and health, little does he realize that she had lived with open tuberculous in the household. Whether or not she has escaped its attack remains to be seen.

Their friends are equally ignorant of what is going on in the Borik household. They can see only the beautiful bride, and the dashing, handsome groom. Two healthy, vigorous young people who are now man and wife.

Back at the Borik household, usually somber and quiet, the Boriks and their guests gather for a wedding festivity. Everyone has visited and paid his respects to Peter Borik in his sick room [background comments].

Preparations are made to have the bride cut the wedding cake.

Little does the happy couple suspect that this ceremony is the backdrop for the tragedy that is to follow.

But Johnny and Clara are unaware of the danger, as they take over the operation of the Borik farm where they now live. His life with Clara is a happy one.

One day, more than a year after their marriage, Johnny comes home from the fields to find that Clara is not feeling well. He questions her and finds she is suffering from headaches, becomes fatigued easily and is running a slight fever.

Clara then tells him she is going to have a baby. And Johnny attributes the illness to the coming child.

But as time goes on, Johnny wonders, could it be that in some mysterious manner, Peter's disease might be causing Clara's illness?

Clara's symptoms grow more evident daily. She tires easily. The fresh farm foods cannot tempt her appetite.

Johnny has made a decision. He is no longer satisfied with Peter's advice that Clara eats lots of food and stay out in the fresh air.

Johnny wants Clara to go to a competent doctor. He fears for her life and that of their child. Clara has just had an x-ray of her lungs, and a physical examination for tuberculosis at the sanatorium.

The x-ray film seen in the viewer reveals she has fallen victim to the disease. The sanatorium doctor explains that everyone should have a chest  x-ray each year.

He tells Mrs. Borik that tuberculosis is not inherited and it is not caused by weak lungs. He points out that it's spread by germs from one person to another and it runs 15 times higher in families where there is a history of tuberculosis.

The doctor ponders. He wonders where Clara could have contacted tuberculosis.

He tells Mrs. Borik that one does not have to look sick to be sick with tuberculosis. The doctor also points out that the earlier tuberculosis is detected, the easier the disease is to cure.

The body must build up a resistance to the germ. Clara has far advanced tuberculosis. If she'd only come to a doctor earlier...

If she'd only been checked periodically for tuberculosis...How, he asked Mrs. Borik, could Clara have caught tuberculosis?

Mrs. Borik knows now. Sadly she recites the story of Peter for the first time. Peter, her husband, was in a sanatorium for treatment.

But Peter didn't like the sanatorium. He didn't feel sick. He didn't realize that he should be willing to remain hospitalized so that his family would be protected against the disease.

He didn't believe what the doctors told him. One night, Peter left the sanatorium. Peter Borik left the sanatorium against medical advice.

The full impact of Peter's willfulness; his persistent rejection of the truth, has come home. Johnny wants Clara to go to the sanatorium.

He feels that both her life and the life of their child might be saved. He knows if she'd gone earlier, she would not have to stay so long in the sanatorium. But Peter has taught his lesson well.

Clara too rejects sanatorium care. She will take her chances of getting well at home. Her father had told her that once you enter the sanatorium, you would surely die.

Poor Clara. She believes this wrong advice. What better attention could she get in a sanatorium? she asks herself and her husband.

But she has no way of telling if she is getting better or worse. At the sanatorium she would be x-rayed regularly.

Sputum tests would be taken. Surgery would be recommended if necessary. The progress of her disease would be noted regularly.

Johnny begs Clara again to go to a sanatorium. Complicated by the fact that she is expecting a baby, tuberculosis works quickly in Clara. She loses ground rapidly.

Tuberculosis takes its toll. And with Clara's death, another life is taken. The life of her unborn child.

Clara has paid with her life. Johnny is not very expressive, but he misses Clara terribly. They had had so little time together. None of their plans, the plans of youth, had come to fruition.

He remembers her vivacity. Her winsome smile. Her dark curls. And her tender touch.

He realizes that all this is lost to him forever because of a disease which need not have happened if it had not been for one man's willfulness.

And in remembering Clara and her youth, he thinks of Agnes, who has gone to work in a factory. Will the pattern of tragedy be repeated in lively Agnes, who has such a desire to live?

Johnny has talked to the tuberculosis worker. She has urged Johnny to prevail upon Agnes to have a chest x-ray.

She pointed out to Johnny that tuberculosis takes its greatest toll among young people from 15 to 35 years of age. Johnny tells Agnes this. He asks her to have an x-ray.

After all, he reasons, if you find out that you haven't caught tuberculosis from your father or Clara, you have nothing to worry about.

If you do find out you have tuberculosis, you can go to the sanatorium before your case becomes hopeless. He tells her that many people have the tuberculosis germ in their bodies.

As long as the resistance is kept up, the germ remains inactive. He tells Agnes she has been working hard at her factory job, but the germ may have gotten a foothold in her body.

He reasons with her. But Agnes can't be reasoned with. She has a streak of her father's willfulness in her. It is fate, she decides.

If my father was sick with tuberculosis, and my sister died from it, I will too. It's just a matter of time and I might as well enjoy life.

Secretly, Agnes feels that she too might have the disease.

Many thousands of tuberculous sick are among us. Everything they touch, cough, or spit on is infected with the tuberculosis germ.

They're a constant source of danger to the people who come in contact with them. But they go blithely on their way, either unaware that they have the disease, or unwilling to do anything about it.

Agnes is afraid. She does not want to know the truth.

But the truth cannot be denied and shut out forever. It must come out. And Agnes, despite her stubbornness, cannot refuse to acknowledge that she is sick.

Too sick to work efficiently.

Many industries have case-finding programs. Industry wants to protect its workers against tuberculosis.

An x-ray is painless and takes only a moment.

X-ray is used to find tuberculosis among apparently healthy people as well as among persons who have had contact with a tuberculosis patient.

They find her disease in the factory x-ray. And, as is true in industry, when tuberculosis is found, she is required to leave her work.

Agnes has tuberculosis. No longer does Mrs. Borik need to be convinced. Tuberculosis killed one daughter, and she is determined to save Agnes.

Mrs. Borik will defy Peter at any cost. Knowing that his ignorance has caused this tragedy, she is going to have a chest x-ray herself. Johnny will have one too.

Agnes has finally reconciled to going to the sanatorium. She sees that her father is not getting any better at home, and that Clara came home only to die. She realizes that if she gives up six months of time now to sanatorium treatment, she may well save her life.

Happily, Agnes' disease has been caught early. She will be able to recover from tuberculosis, and lead a happy, normal life.

She now realizes tuberculosis can be cured. It is not a death sentence.

Mrs. Borik knows, and Johnny knows, that by going to the sanatorium early, Agnes' chances for recovery are enhanced.

Johnny and Mrs. Borik return to their house of sorrow, determined that there shall be no more needless suffering and death. They have been examined, and they happily are not victims of Peter's disease.

It will not be a simple matter to return Peter to a sanatorium, but their minds are made up. They know he is wrong in staying home. He must go back to the tuberculosis hospital.

Last year, more than 50,000 American men, women and children died in our country, because they made the wrong decisions when they still could have been saved.

Don't let the tragedy of the Borik family repeat in your home! Remember, no home is safe until all homes are safe.

[ Music ]

[The End, A Capital Film Production.]