DAVID STRAUSS

Getting weaker, but still going strong

By KATHLEEN CHAPMAN
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

At first, no one could figure out what was wrong with the Strauss brothers.

Iris Strauss became worried when her four sons reached elementary school and began to have problems such as muscle weakness, tremors and slurred speech.

After many guesses and tests, doctors discovered that all four boys have late-onset Tay-Sachs, a genetic condition that disproportionately affects Jewish families of Eastern European ancestry. Babies who are born with the disease lack an enzyme that prevents the accumulation of fatty deposits in their nerve cells. Few live to see their 4th birthdays.

David Strauss, now 40, and his three brothers have a rare form of Tay-Sachs that left them with enough of the enzyme to survive. But gradually, the disease is robbing David of his ability to walk.

For five years, Strauss worked in the kitchen of a hotel in Boca Raton, a job that he loved. He was named employee of the month several times, but had to leave when he began falling and cutting himself while trying to chop food.

He then took a maintenance job at a rest stop on Florida’s Turnpike. But he had to leave that job, too, when he became too weak to walk without crutches.

Though he has worked for most of his life, his only income now is $742 a month from Social Security, along with $86 in food stamps. Strauss’ speech is badly slurred now, and his muscles are getting weaker. Soon, he will need a wheelchair.

Strauss does what he can to stay active. Four days a week, he takes a bus to the Palm Beach Habilitation Center to learn computer skills, though the $4 round-trip fare is a struggle. And when he had to leave his gym because of falls, he got a home exercise bike that helps him slow the degeneration of his muscles.

Iris Strauss, 64, who works as an accountant, was once able to help him in and out of the pool at her home. One of David’s greatest joys was going swimming or just floating on a raft, she said. But without a lift to get him out, David can no longer go in the water.

Iris Strauss and her partner help with cleaning and small repairs at the small house west of Lake Worth that David shares with his brother, Eric. But it is increasingly hard for the brothers to get around the bathroom they share, which is too small to accommodate a wheelchair.

David recently fell hard in the bathroom, ending up with a black eye that made him look as if he had been in a fight.

“The floor won,” he quipped.

Through so much loss, Iris Strauss said, David has kept his kind nature - and sharp sense of humor.

“He’s just such a good person,” she said.

DAVID STRAUSS’ WISH

Strauss would love enough money to renovate his bathroom with a walk-in shower and a door wide enough to accommodate a wheelchair. He also needs a small Hoveround vehicle that would replace his walker, which is becoming more difficult for him to use without falling. He could also use an electric razor that won’t break if he drops it, as well as vouchers for groceries and Palm Tran Connection. His dream is to have a lift that would allow him to get in and out of the swimming pool at his mother’s house.

Nominated by: Palm Beach Habilitation Center, Inc., 4522 South Congress Ave. Lake Worth, FL 33461 (561) 965-8500

UPDATE

When Shelley Siegel read about brothers David and Eric Strauss, who suffer from a rare genetic disease that makes it difficult for them to speak and walk, she called immediately to offer her help.

Siegel was touched by David Strauss’ simple wishes, including a bathroom where he wouldn’t hurt himself or fall.

“This was such a practical request, and something that can really change a life,” she said.

As owner of Siegel Design Group in Lake Worth, she has experience designing accessible homes. Many groups, including Rebuilding Together of the Palm Beaches, volunteered free labor, and Siegel asked contractors to provide the fixtures and appliances. Soon after the New Year, David Strauss will have a brand-new bathroom.

His mother, Iris Strauss, said she cried when she heard about the gift.

“David is just so overwhelmed and grateful,” she said.