The Littlest Victims
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The Littlest Victims | |
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Genre | Drama |
Screenplay by | J.J. Towne & Kenneth Cavander |
Story by | J.J. Towne |
Directed by | Atlanta, Georgia |
Cinematography | John McPherson |
Running time | 1hr. 40 min. |
Production company | CBS |
Original release | |
Network | CBS |
Release | April 23, 1989 |
The Littlest Victims is a 1989
Storyline
In 1982, Oleske is practicing medicine at Newark, New Jersey's
Later, he receives a report from the CDC about infected transfusions and blood products and finds one of his pediatric patients had received blood from a donor who later developed and died of the disease, much to the anger of the patient's family over not being told this beforehand. TV reporters appear in the hospital wearing disposable latex gloves, surgical clothes and masks, afraid of becoming infected by being in the same room or building with Oleske and his AIDS patients.
Another of his patients, an adult female former prostitute and I.V. drug user, is informed by him that her child has the disease, indicating that its virus was passed to her child through her blood while she was pregnant, meaning that she became infected before she gave up drugs and prostitution. After her child dies of AIDS, she returns to her former lifestyle.
The publicity of Oleske's work on AIDS also causes problems with his family in his private life as his children are subjected to ridicule from their peers about this. In 1984, when it's announced that the virus that causes AIDS has been isolated, another one of his child patients dies of AIDS and is buried in a Gospel music style funeral that Oleske attends, and Oleske finally receives approval of his work from the CDC and promises to continue his work among his patients, even though they will eventually die young.
References
- ^ Willman, Chris. "TV Reviews : A Lowbrow Look at the 'Littlest Victims' of AIDS" Los Angeles Times, April 22, 1989
- ^ The Littlest Victims hollywood.com, accessed February 27, 2016