‘Chronically Ill – Chronically Ignored’: a new documentary on ME/CFS

[Countrygirl]

https://www.thecanary.co/global/world-analysis/2025/02/17/chronically-ill-chronically-ignored/

‘Chronically Ill – Chronically Ignored’: a new documentary on ME/CFS​

Hannah Sharland by Hannah Sharland
17 February 2025
One of the “biggest medical scandals of the 21st century” is about to be blown wide open to a new audience. This is because, for the first time, a major broadcasting channel – in Germany – will air the stories of people living with myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME/CFS) in a new groundbreaking feature-length programme. Investigative documentary Chronically Ill – Chronically Ignored is set to give voice to this too-long abandoned community, amidst the harrowing, and shameful history of patient neglect, abuse, and obtuse scientific obstinance.
It’s all thanks to the immense efforts of one bed-bound chronically ill director, and her committed co-director. Together, the pair embarked on a globe-trotting journey – online and in person – to confront politicians, scientists, doctors, and organisations at the heart of this major medical injustice.
Ahead of the broadcast, the Canary has spoken to one of the dedicated duo, long-term film-maker Sibylle Dahrendorf, who herself lives with a constellation of debilitating chronic illnesses.........................................

Patients ‘can really die from those illnesses’​

Dahrendorf gave the Canary an insight into some of the stories the pair have featured in the documentary. Of course, no film tracing the history of ME/CFS and the atrocious reality for patients up to the present day could overlook the tragic death of Maeve Boothby-O’Neill. It might arguably have been the first time the mainstream media reported so comprehensively on the story of a person who lived with the devastating disease.

The inquiry itself threw the failings of the state, the NHS, and ignorant-sometimes-bordering-arrogant medical professionals, into the spotlight. And thanks to Maeve’s own harrowingly poignant, powerful, and pertinent words, it drew attention to the prominent biopsychosocial lobby at the centre of her catastrophic care.

Maeve’s story struck a chord with Dahrendorf in many ways. Not least among these was the appalling fact that:

there’s no help in hospitals

Unsurprisingly, this was an all too familiar experience for Dahrendorf:

Arte TV will broadcast Chronically Ill – Chronically Ignored on 25 February 2025 at 10.35pm CET. Dahrendorf has not been able to confirm with the broadcaster, but hopes Arte TV will add the documentary to its Youtube channel, with English subtitles in due course.

 

[bad1080]

there is also this one: https://www.arte.tv/en/videos/096283-000-A/living-with-chronic-fatigue-syndrome/