In March of 1955 I was seventeen years old and a senior at Towanda Valley High School in Towanda, Pa. I was class president and busy getting ready for graduation ceremonies in June. At the same time, I was also looking past high school to the future by enrolling at Penn State University for the fall semester. It was exciting to realize that in a few short months I would be living away from my family for the first time, independent and on my own with a whole new lifestyle and adventures before me. The course of my life seemed neatly planned out for the next four years. But all my plans suddenly changed when in March of 1955 I was diagnosed with pulmonary tuberculosis and was sent to the State TB Sanatorium in Cresson, Pa. where I spent sixteen months recovering.
Benjamin Ocaya writes for TBSP about his forthcoming film, "Silent Killer"
The idea of the ‘Silent Killer’ was born out of agony and pain I went through when I was under going treatment for Multidrug-resistant Tuberculosis in northern Norway. The treatment lasted more than three years. During this time, I thought a lot about the happy, innocent beautiful faces that I have always met on street and how their lives would be if they had MDR-TB, sad.
I thought of the best way to share my experience so that it would be helpful and maybe give people a different point of view of TB situation in the world. Much as I tried to write a lot about it, I felt that if I did something with passion, it would mean more than anything else. I thought I would make an audio-visual documentary.
