Chicagoist: Can I Get a Whoop Whoop?

Lee Darrow

Sun, 10 Dec 2006 19:36:18 -0600

Sorry for the slow comeback - it's been a busy season and I have been on the road quite a bit. Here's some additional information about whooping cough for you. Just fyi... Pertussis sufferers may experience more than two months of severe, uncontrollable coughing episodes that can occur 15 times within 24 hours. These coughing fits can lead to vomiting, a hernia, or even a broken rib. In some cases, pertussis can lead to pneumonia. (source: The American Association for the Advancement of Science Eureka Alert http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2004-10/cw-wcm101804.php So yeah - that is really hilariously funny - vomiting, hernia,, broken ribs and pneumonia (which CAN be fatal). Just hilarious. You really need to work on your empathy skills as a reporter. Seriously.

geekgrrl

Sun, 05 Nov 2006 13:23:30 -0600

fair enough. i may have been a little insensitive, but it stems from two things: 1. whooping cough is nonfatal to all but babies without immunization, and 2. it's a relatively obscure disease nowadays, raising the amusement factor for myself and hopefully a few other people out there.

Lee Darrow

Sun, 05 Nov 2006 12:07:43 -0600

How nice that you can laugh over someone else's illness! May someone come to YOU when you get sick with something "minor" and laugh at you sometime. For the record, I grew up in Oak Park and we weren't all that fond of New Trier, either (there was a bit of a rivalry with ANY other high school, to be honest), but to laugh at someone else's illness? Your article wasn't just insensitive, but in poor taste. Not only you, but your Editor, should be put in a room full of these kids who HAVE whooping cough, so you contract it and then see just how "funny" it is when you feel like you are trying to cough up a lung! Lee Darrow, C.H.