Here & Now; 1313

Or. Are you. Afraid of. The pursuit. No. There will be a hundred people. All of the Ferguson looking for the mystic and there's absolutely no scientific explanation for. Training and so much of this is from the physical. Aspect of. Them. To.

My. Sister is a doctor My brother works for a insurance company. The sister is a Lutheran minister and you ran away to join the circus. Yeah more or less. The Wisconsin magazine is a presentation of Wisconsin Public Television. Good evening and happy 1087 I'm Dave Iverson to begin the new year we go back to the past a collection of stories from our magazine archives. We'll start week two of our holiday film festival with a report on something called sudden unexplained death syndrome. Not to be confused with SIDS sudden infant death syndrome. This new disorder affects only Asian adults and ranks as one of the top causes of death in young Asian males. It is then a major cause of concern for Wisconsin's 15000 Southeast Asian refugees. Our report is called sudden death. Rick Rockwell is the reporter. Forty six year old sea of funk Chong is dead and no one knows why he die.

They wanted to know why it happened and what was being done about it. You know doctors trying to do the buying you know to find out what you know what the answer is and Lynn Santana was one of sea of funds American sponsors. She helped him find work and settle in Wausau five years ago. See if the man on the right in this home video was a robust mung refugee. He brought his family out of Laos because he fought on the American side during the war in Southeast Asia. Before he became a soldier. He was in his small village he farmed and he was the head man in a small village from that small village brought his family to this house in Wasaga with his wife and six children. They set up housekeeping on the cramped upper floor with see a fun working part time jobs in the family sometimes on welfare was often a difficult existence

adjusting to this new country. Through it all Sant Angelo says he kept up the image of perfect health. Excellent physical condition. You know slim. Never never sick that I can remember I can't even remember having a cord but that all changed four months ago see a funk Chong died suddenly in his sleep. Before he died did he have any problems any sickness illness. None at all. Now. See a farm's widow and Czar Tao told us about the night her husband died because he did not wake me up. I heard the noise he was making and I tried to wake him up. I woke up and held him in my arms. That's when the sticky liquid came out of his mouth. We. See a farm's death shocked the monk community in

Wausau adding to the shock the lack of answers from doctors about what caused the death of this healthy middle aged man. I don't know what to say. He died so suddenly. I don't know what happened to him. The doctors never told me. And was killed. But the conditions of his death met what is called unexplained death for short. So his heart and tissue samples were sent here for their study. The Cook County medical examiner's office in Chicago. Although this is not c a function Harvard pathologist performed a similar examination to determine he probably died of sudden unexplained death syndrome one of two confirmed cases in Wisconsin according to state public health officials.

It's a fatal episode that isn't affected. Over a hundred people. All of whom seem to share similar characteristics. And there is absolutely no scientific explanation for it. Dr. Neil Holton a physician at St. Paul Ramsey Medical Center in St. Paul Minnesota is the former director of the sudden unexplained death research project. Hilton started the project after confronting a case similar to see a funk Chung's. I really got. Curious about how this could happen. I had to try to explain to his widow what had happened why an autopsy and show no. Abnormalities other than he was dead. And I think ever since then I've I I want to know doctors know very little about sudden unexplained death syndrome unexplained is the key word. But they do know is this apparently healthy Asian males between the ages of 20 and 45 are the syndromes prime targets while those men are asleep.

Something stops the beating of their hearts the hearts which in Americans dying like this will probably show arteries clogged with cholesterol and clots and other. Atherosclerotic changes were totally normal. Dr. Holton takes his curiosity about the syndrome on the road. Addressing this conference on southeast asian folk medicine in Madison none of the cases had any unusual factors in their health and their diet. Like the patients their experience is refugees their experience in the medical Israelis from the late 40s early 1950s in Japan there is called the Curie disease which means to die suddenly like with a snap. Dr. Ron monger is an anthropologist who's investigating the syndrome at the University of Minnesota. Although many Hmong and other Southeast Asian refugees claim that it's a new problem for them is evidence that it's a longstanding problem in other Southeast Asian groups. For instance

the first medical article written in the Philippines on this was in 117. And every day I've been impressed by the fact that every therapy no adult that I've talked to knows of this sudden death syndrome has a particular word and took all that language wrong and that it means to rise into my own sleep. Is there perhaps a genetic clue here since we're only seeing one race affected. It's a possibility but when you think about the diversity of Filipinos and Japanese and. Non. They're really. Not. Closely related. Even racially. Doctors Helton and monger have taken their interest about the syndrome to Asia among refugee camps in Thailand. By working in a camp as a physician Hilton learned some people believe the syndrome may have a link to the religious beliefs of the refugees monger heard similar stories so many explanations

involve the loss of spirits spirits made to part because they're unloved unwanted other spheres interfere with them. There is a concept in the Hmong culture that I understand that. Illness is the loss of Spirit spirits. A person's spirit leaves their body when they become ill. And if enough of their spirits leave and they die. Religion and Culture. Like other immigrants the Mung would like to hold on to these traditions. The tug between their old world and their new life here in America undoubtedly causes stress. Could the faster paced life here be a hidden killer. I found evidence for my work in Thailand that psychological stress emotional stress may have precipitated some does

see a phone Chung's family has no idea if stress or other cultural factors contributed to their father's death. But there are other theories in the Mung community about the cause of the strange mysterious deaths people have their own pet theories. You know people are absolutely certain that this is something that happened during the war are angry about that. That's something that was dropped. It's documented that there are deaths in Thailand so I think the culture shock theory really doesn't hold up. Women are as stressed as men but they're not dying. A lot of people have come here from a lot of parts of the world and they did not die of culture shock of. The chemical warfare theory also has not stood out well. Toxicology studies have not shown any toxins in the people who have died. There are no definitive answers behind what causes these sudden deaths. That uncertainty

has caused fear to ripple through the refugee community in that the immediate relatives especially the males also. You know I'm more frightened by it now than they ever were before. And the people who. Are still alive are afraid they will be next and. There's a lot of stress because the families are told there was nothing wrong with this person but he's dead. All that uncertainty brings us back here to the medical examiner's office in Chicago. Although the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta are now tracking sudden death cases across the nation the first significant study of a possible cause of the syndrome has been completed here. So first thing we found was it's all of see saw actually two big. Payout to size. Weight of victims of cysts. A known disease so to speak.

Dr. Egnor and Dr. Robert Kirshner Cook County deputy medical examiner studied hearts from the syndromes victims. They also found abnormalities in the fibers of what is called the heart's conduction system what you get it. Is. Something that the surgeon of the fibers that is the fibers are very regular back here and they may prematurely come down into the. Ventricle. In one case there was at this continuities of some want to cut the fibers. The node in the heart the sino atrial node I call that the sparkplug of a car and the heart muscle is the motor and the conduction system are the spark plug wires. Basically they take the little electric charge down in and set off the. Contraction of the myocardial your heart muscle. And the researchers in Chicago took you can't take the wires off like you can in a car and look at them for defects. But what you can do in human hearts is. Take tiny little cross sections of that

conduction pathway which is several inches long and look at the cells and see if they have an unusual distribution or pattern. And that's what they did. Although the Chicago researchers are close to publishing their findings they admit it's only an extremely small step forward toward discovering the cause of the syndrome and prevention of future cases. There is no way to detect these abnormalities while the person is alive and the person will not suffer any clinical symptoms that would let you know that they have some abnormality of the conduction system. Until such time perhaps as there is a fatal short circuit in the person develops in a Brittany and dies how often do abnormal connections are currency average population we don't know because we only know about it's a few cases which had abnormalities read diagnosed and so. Now it obsolete and also booked up but in general we just don't know.

But doing more autopsies to get more hearts to examine may be difficult. Researchers have few cases to work with and many Asians do not like giving permission for a time. I would say the refugees especially the elderly have a couple of different concept about autopsies. They see it as a sacrilege. And something that is horrible that should not be done to the relatives or they possibly could not go to. The spirit world. People who are missing parts are going to be missing them. For infinity eternity from Chung's relatives were no different from other moms. They felt they were pressured into allowing an autopsy. When the autopsy was done they were upset that no answers came even after that. I'd like the doctors to find out what was wrong with my husband. I want to know the reason why he died.

But see if funks widow may never know the answer because the Southeast Asian community in this country is very small. Research into the syndrome is limited. We talk about orphan diseases in this country this is really an orphan disease because it doesn't affect anybody. Powerful or anybody well and. It's. You know. It does upset me that you know that now more is being done. And so far the researchers who have studied this syndrome have few answers. The fact that we have found an anatomic substrate that may be related to the cause of death is very important. It obviously is not the whole answer. Why is this order only an attack. Men we haven't answered that question yet. Why does it strike only in sleep. That question hasn't been answered. It's a. Bona fide medical mystery. I would call it. A major mystery yes. Still to come in the only remaining as it

thrills and chills in Children of all the Jews. The Navy's motto may be it's not just a job it's an adventure but for many young men it's the job part that counts particularly in states where unemployment is high. So it was four years ago when we followed two young Madison men in search of both jobs and adventure. Join the Navy and we went along for the ride. Here now is a reprise of our documentary report the men of company. A look and a look in the paper and there's really no decent jobs

offered in one go. The job market is rather tight. I think the Navy and the Air Force and all the armed forces can open doors that would otherwise be closed. Well give me some self-discipline. That's that's what I need most right now. You don't drop your shoulder. But it seems like a good thing it offers a lot of opportunities. And venture. Song. Join the Navy. Oh. Yeah.

You're right. Hot cold. Hot. Cold. Be right. Back where. They. Started it up. Well. If you're using you know don't worry you're lucky. You're not making it anyway. They. Play. With all. You good Monday. Morning. A lot. We. Love this guy. You guys were right. Morning. By. 0. 0 0.

You say well 5 here come three come with. This. I want you. Look you know what I call my. Home right. Right. OK. People are going to go out and Simon. Oh you probably. Going to run. Every night. Did you get. This thing to talk. More on this thing.

Major change in your life. And it seems scary. Basic training. There's so much emphasis put on the physical aspect of the U.S. the go to boot camp and there's and sort of peer in everything. So with your mind and. Heart. You're right. This is.

What it takes to keep the. Only way. You. Eat. Eat. Eat. Eat. Yes. Yes yes. Yes. Yes.

Yes. Right. They're. Like. No not now not. For years they are going to. Be self-possessed during the Gulf. War. Forty.

Three. Fifty. Three. Cut the tongue the load the cut the. Flotilla run. Run run run run run. Run. Run. Run. Run. They. Were joking.

Yes. You're. Right. We're. Restoring. The way. What

we want. Why. You. Guys got it. Right. All right. Get ready. We learned. Where you were at night. Or got you know. Wages low. Wages low. But I think the hardest part has been just adjusting just getting used to the way things are on the road here. One. Look Like That morning I made right all. Right all right. You know. What he. Was. Like. No thank you.

For. Being boring. Now when I say go you have 12 minutes to complete the remaining part of my brother. Yes. Yes. Sir. But. You know what. You. Really. Need. That. Whatever. You. Really don't realize how much your baby they don't tell you. You don't have to do everything in your own.

Like. First time we had dirty socks and I asked the CC years ago so I have some dirty socks. That need washing he said while putting my hands and taking in the shower and soap yourself done for you when you're tall and I clean socks in the morning. So would you do. Exactly what he said. Is. Different. Just not. A lot of fun. Not. Just. The happy ones to. Me Thank you. I lost 23 pounds no. Time to lose another 20 through the lean mean fighting machine.

That's what happens when you look. Around You know what. That's part of. You I feel like I've. Got nice clothes like. 1. 2 3 6 7 8 9. 10. 11. 12 13 14 recover Circa. Any regrets. Any regrets. No not really. Not at all.

That's pretty much what I expected. Right. Now. He's. Crazy. And intensity into this. So I'm going to start. The. Which number. What your numbers were. What was your number yesterday.

Yes it was five and you were counted six days for one you can side. What's wrong you can't can't. Go like. 30 years old you should be able to count at least a 30. Yes. You're big on it. They're going to. Their. Left shoulder are. Going to go to Toronto to see that she wants to be around the smaller star. Really right.

Any regrets. No. Not. At all. I. Have a great time right now is the. First couple weeks it was. I had a few regrets I. Did Let us call our. Families For the first time and. Got on the phone and just started a good conversation is the time. That. I think about now it's understand where you got 9000 people who want to call home. Can't take all day but that was hard for it was hard it was rushing. I talked to my mom. And I got all choked up and started crying. But. I still miss. Her. Yes. The reasons are nothing. Like the eighth grade I've always thought of military because my brother was in the army and my father anything else. I wasn't doing it to press them. It was just here in a family

tradition. I just did it because I always wanted one you know. I like that. For the control that is the people knowing what they're supposed to be dealing in. You're always going to take orders from somebody. You never get everybody. Thank you Mary told. Us. Are you sorry you pose a bomb threat. We do a mother. Home a concert and. I feel like that about myself for you know you know if you've got a family. In you know me that will pay the bills because. They're feeling. You know you know you're not a man. But. It really hurts when you. Hear. This a lot of pressure back you know. Where's the money

when. You got to do. You know that. I was. When a girl. Like a mischievous yell out runs into service. David you're here I'm here and she. Was. Going to play the field. I didn't mind what I did there the way far as it did. But I have to expect it because she's awfully young. It's all my life but. I guess when you're physically away a million finally realize wow much how much you feel for that person. When I met. My net I just. Ran it. I took it for granted so I'm part of it was my father's side of. The City. There's nobody really. Hard about it. You. Know the guys in the Barry Ulanov well enough to open up the families you know your feelings to him and. Tell him

how you feel. I'm asking what else is asking to be a long. Long life path. For me. And a man. That. Plays out. The case here. God haters are getting us anywhere is sad little. Man. We.

Must. Load up. The. Timeline. What. The hell is hot over Levanon right now do. Him Rangers still doing their job. Well. Doesn't really shake me up at all because you figure they're just related to supervise whatever. I don't think that anyone would ever get shot a Marine over there because they

know the Americans are big and strong and if they ever shot one of our Marines it would just everything would break loose. You know they did like the same thing with you know just sending people in the keep peace and lookin to love to. Drive. Cars. Turned on. Their. Own turf. One of my classes last week told our mission in the service our job in the snow this is to die for our country. That's that's what he's supposed to be I would want to stress that I was a little off the wall. He said well he was awful as he was saying the only reason we're here is to die for our country. I mean you know the guy's a little whacked out. But. You know on jihad he got your GED yourself. Say. Whatever. You. Want to her own mind of lighten up on stuff like the way

you never know what's going to happen if. They don't sell the war part. They just tell you about education and everything. So a lot of guys they get here in the CC all start talking about well you don't have to go to war fighting a lot of guys get all scared and say well I joined it and we had one guy that that left like the first night because he was really scared about going to war and told CC that he was in for the fighting. Yeah. Must. Be done with the

sun. But the. Load the. What. It's a good feeling. Coming. To you during the past several weeks and learned about the virtues of self discipline.

I don't I don't. Hear. Their point. Company commander that brought about the baby I want today to be back at. The right. Time. A. Harness get out. After a recruit training and in the process. I learned about the. Walk here. They are no longer recruit. There and then they'll. Have a place for a ride where you can tell where every night they play. Right.

Time now for our regular commentator Joel McNally of the Milwaukee Journal tonight. Joel's wish list for 1907. No matter how old and battered everything else is a brand new year always brings renewed hope. Suddenly anything is possible. Tommy Thompson could turn out to be the most progressive governor in Wisconsin history. It's only natural for someone from Ellroy town named after George Jetson's kid the Bradley sports cynically open to the public without another local politician saying or doing anything major league stupid. Rocky Brewers can win the pennant. Green Bay Packers can win Sunday school attendance pins Mayor Meyera Milwaukee could become grand marshal of the circus parade at the very least he and his wife could write in a league cage. State politics could turn on the building of universities and schools instead of the bill in a maximum security prisons.

Eugene Haas of first Airways could fly food and medical supplies to Central America and Wisconsin's license plates could be designed by Andrew Wyeth the new year brings the gleaning promise that public servants will serve the public. Leaders will lead and everyone will pull together for the common good. Yet again. Milwaukee Journal commentator Jill McNally every summer Wisconsinites get a glimpse of old time circus life as flat cars carry antique circus wagons from Circus World Museum in bear a boot to Milwaukee for the annual circus parade the names on those antique black cars are mostly for shows that no longer exists but the days of the traveling circus are far from over. Including one outfit that still calls Wisconsin home life under the big top. Photograph by Jim Erskine and reported by our tech. Bored with your job. You too can be sure line.

Before that I was a social worker and a staff trainer for the state of Illinois as a bank teller. My husband was a staff I was going to become a land use planner I was a public school music music teacher for two of yours. All of these people did with the help of Wayne Franzen and I grew up on the very front row of Wisconsin. Where. We had to. Move down by Maryland I school now Wisconsin that I went on the college I taught school for six years. To teach. I thought enough for a welding done in the structure. Were in France and started treating his pet goldfish to do tricks as well. He called it a hobby. He just grew I had the goats and I had. The horses and I had the dogs that were dead like noon that's out here. Yeah it was just getting to the hobby was getting out of hand. Here. I am coming down already. That got a lot of that. Yes you did kind of get out of hand. France and try to get a circus to let him and his

goats perform for free if need be but found little interest and so. I can give is that I've been broadsides records in France and I'm grinning. Small town farm boy from Amherst Junction Wisconsin is now a circus impresario. Was. An impresario who works nearly 18 hours a day seven days a week for about nine months out of the year. He is the proprietor rob the friends and brothers circus couple of travels across maybe one fourth of the country. The circus calls Wisconsin home. Today it is Coloma a city just south of Stevens Point with the official population of three hundred sixty seven. Most likely bored people on a hot summer day like this. The day when the potatoes aren't yet ready to dig up this is the sort of place when friends should provide a good audience. But he takes no

chances. The local sponsors from the Lions Club have put up the posters but you can't advertise too much cologne is a small town but small towns are what keep friends and circus in business it is a small town. And I'm a full on. First of all in the bigger cities you have some of the indoor shows coming and playing indoors. Yeah I don't I think people. Think that it's more the idea of taking a chance on something that might be raining out and this sort of thing you know and so it didn't fit anymore and people didn't cause all that's not a fair statement. And we do very good in cities too sometimes in our bedroom. Right big city oriented. But we're playing in the summer. And that's it. Yes. And. If Russian circuses generally have a bear act a real Wisconsin circus deserves to have Allison Dairyland on an elephant.

At least in Colma the Franzen circus has it. Circuses often imitate the nations from which they come. Acts mirror the local folklore America's circuses perhaps mirroring a nation that is downright fetishistic about growth merged in combine creating names in a minute only by the link to the flat cars they traveled on. But not so with the Franzen show. I hurt myself from the advertising standpoint by sticking to the European one ring. Style because somebody American people are hung up on true ratings. So when they see some advertising five rings it means you know wow this is going to be great. There at one time I guess maybe we ran out of seating room. And so they stretched. These rings out so you can actually watch the whole show and have a second rate. It's it makes kind of a mess because like trying to watch three TVs at the same time watching this but. At some time. Before about 600 people sitting on metal bleachers mounted on trailers. The acts continue with the circus performers don't have to come

from foreign cities with funny sounding name. They can also come from an American city with a form of funny sounding name like Sheboygan. My father's a circus man is what he is in. One way and I hope when Wayne started the show 12 years ago he went ham and saw him about booking a show in Wisconsin. So he started booking that's what he said but then as an agent. So Heidi Cassidy is now the show's business manager organist and burial and. So we used to travel one where the day my dad brought. That's how I got interested in the truck if I did all the crazy things I did but I mean I did it for my gym set is what I did at little kids gym so that's why they're in everything. Yeah I. Just tried whatever they did and I went home and did a lot of stupid things but I did it you know excited now those gimmicks to anything are I just took a plastic jump rope and put them around my and my sister's neck we're going to do an act next.

Then my mother would have got us going to vote hung ourselves on you it's a thing of like that you know you also don't have to come from a long line of gypsies we've been on wheels for generations but that is a metallurgical engineer. Dry. Sister is a doctor and my brother works for an insurance company and the other sister is a Lutheran minister and you ran away and joined the circus. Yeah more or less. Jen's Martian is an Ivy Leaguer Dartmouth 81 Frandsen 85. Larson was on the gymnastic team at Dartmouth when he had a chance to join another circus four years ago. He didn't even think about not taking it. It's a very very special part for him but I think the potential in the form of clowns animals people doing things that you've never seen before. You know there's something very special about that. As a performer you kind of see people hopefully you see people smile at you and react to you

in a way that they don't react to someone on a TV show or a movie. That's kind of that's you out there you're not acting somebody else that's you and so this is a very very personal thing. That people don't get a chance to to get involved with usually. It's live entertainment too nowadays that's nothing to be taken for granted especially in a small town. But not for long. You do two shows. You leave since they left Florida. March 6th. The show has played in Alabama Georgia South Carolina North Carolina Virginia West Virginia Pennsylvania New York Ohio Indiana Illinois and of course Wisconsin. They will see at least five additional states before they get back to their winter quarters or at least they hope so. Others argue. It's part of the way of life. The words routine maintenance are not necessarily part of the circus vocabulary jumper cables are.

Everything sachets fact here. Today show is in Athens as it's known officially your atoms fast it's known locally. Franson is getting closer to his hometown. People notice the trend you know where you push them out of town. Yeah you know I mean like telling a Mohammedan junction is that where you live. And I knew some friends you know here down here and now you're a moron. This is been my desire. To own my show and that's why I traveled when I was a high school kid. It was only dad that I could get in a circus that they offered me Franzen's visit to Athens also draws one of his biggest fans. Former State Senator Rand one time circus fan boy Clifford tiny Krieger and he had to rely on Circus fans all over the country to confuse the working class.

And of course. I got around and I had those 12 counties in northeastern Wisconsin Crandon Rhinelander and Eagle River and through that area. And naturally when I went to meetings a particular volunteer fire department. I'd ask them if they were interested in sponsoring is that. The two have been friends ever since. You know it looks like it is he said you know what. Start bringing back old boy to. Athens will provide an even bigger crowd more people to white elephants at a dollar a shot. More people to buy cotton candy and popcorn.

Helping to come up with the 3000 to thirty five hundred dollars a day it takes to keep the show on the road. You get out of what you put into it. Yeah. And by. That in terms of real trouble. I make a living doing what I. Do. Get to the hobby before I start. So I can. Call it work. At any point I want to and I turn around and call it my playgroup. They've gone from circus families but maybe they are circus families in the making. Friends and sons. Now do the go to act. Heidi Cassidy enlisted her husband who was a one time chef. Now is going to leave out with the circus and I stayed a year just so I would have enough money to buy a trailer and everything so it took me a year to convince him to even consider going with the circus. And so I stayed one more year. I said well this is a you know five this

year I'm going one way or another. We weren't married at the time and he came to visit for a weekend. Yeah we happened to see that we're doing now the cradle act. There's not a couple on the show doing it. And. Enjoyed it and he thought he might like to do it. And every show ends the same way. Bill Reynolds the ringmaster trumpet player and animal handler the guy who used to be a school music teacher gets up and so does the friends and brothers circus like the Marine Corps needs a few good men and you with my problem. And that wraps up our report for this week. Next time on our show we'll talk about our future will include business

people and the president of the University of Wisconsin future on the Wisconsin magazine. Have a happy holiday weekend.