I joined an online adults with hydrocephalus support group a while ago and occasionally receive updates from group members. I also read about stories people in the group post. This week I found one which was familiar based on the television show, Face/Off.
The last time I watched a few episodes was during a shunt revision stay in the hospital in 2011.
Someone in the group had mentioned the March 22, 2017 episode of this show was about Frightening Families. Group 1 featured three characters from a circus trio. One of them was a child like creature with an enlarged head in a wheelchair depicted as having hydrocephalus.
People in the online support group were quite upset about this depiction. I wasn’t happy about it either. Especially since it doesn’t represent everyone who has hydrocephalus. We know hydrocephalus affects people of various ages: infants, children and adults. Unfortunately, since hydrocephalus isn’t well known, a lot of people automatically think most people with hydrocephalus are severely disabled. Many people in the support group commented on how this episode reinforces these stereotypes.
I wrote a comment about this episode to Syfy.
The full episode of Face/Off which aired March 22, 2017 can be found Youtube.
At 31:19 – The family of creatures in the circus are introduced to the judges.
At 34:02 – Where the judges analyze the wheelchair character with hydrocephalus
A description of the episode can be found here.