--- title: Watch a Courageous Couple Battle ALS description: When a man develops amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (called ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease), his partner becomes his caretaker canonical: https://time.com/4219910/als-lou-gehrigs-disease/ copyright: © 2026 TIME USA, LLC. All Rights Reserved. terms: https://legal.time.com/terms-of-service/ license_contact: syndication@time.com author: Alexandra Sifferlin article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-02-19T14:00:00.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-05T08:41:13.193Z article:section: Health og:title: See How One Couple Is Fighting ALS With Love og:description: When a man develops amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (called ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease), his partner becomes his caretaker og:url: https://time.com/4219910/als-lou-gehrigs-disease/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt55163725be39c723/69887d850a4a226c0d9c85c1/david-adox-als-love.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1440 og:image:height: 810 og:image:alt: david-adox-als-love og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: See How One Couple Is Fighting ALS With Love twitter:description: When a man develops amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (called ALS or Lou Gehrig's disease), his partner becomes his caretaker twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt55163725be39c723/69887d850a4a226c0d9c85c1/david-adox-als-love.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # See How One Couple Is Fighting ALS With Love > Sponsored content. 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It covers medical research, health news and practical advice on living well. #### Where can I get reliable health news by email? Health Matters is TIME's weekday health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free weekday newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-health-2026q3/newsletters?i=d083856f-77a3-4ce2-9115-db1f3c34f0ff&cr=time-nl-health-2026q3-v1) ## Video: See How One Couple Is Fighting ALS With Love [Watch (HLS stream): See How One Couple Is Fighting ALS With Love](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/9LNhXlVn.m3u8) (3:30)  _Published 2016-02-19. This is the story of David Adox, 43, who in 2014 was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as ALS, and his husband and caregiver Danni Michaeli._ by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin Feb 19, 2016 2:00 PM UTC This is the story of David Adox, 43, who in 2014 was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as ALS, and his husband and caregiver Danni Michaeli. by [Alexandra Sifferlin](https://time.com/author/alexandra-sifferlin/) ## Alexandra Sifferlin Feb 19, 2016 2:00 PM UTC When he was just 43, David Adox, an account planner for a creative agency, was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. ALS—or Lou Gehrig’s disease, as it’s sometimes called—is a neurological disease that attacks the body’s nerves, causing weakness and disabilities. People with ALS lose the ability to move all their muscles, and many eventually need support to breathe. The disease affects more than 12,000 people in the United States, and it is always fatal. ALS progresses quickly. Within a month of diagnosis, Adox had to use a cane to walk; weeks later, he relied on a walker, and then a wheelchair. The fast advancement of the disease is one of the most difficult parts—not just for the people who have it, but for those who love them, too. “In some way I’ve always been a caregiver for Dave, just because I feel like spouses are often that way with each other,” says Adox’s husband Danni Michaeli, who’s a psychiatrist. “His motor functioning is profoundly impaired. But his sensory functioning is completely normal…he can feel every itch. Every itch that you cannot scratch, somebody has to do that for you.” Adox and Michaeli, who live together in South Orange, New Jersey with their one-year-old son Orion, shared their story with photographer Abby Kraftowitz, who began filming and photographing them in 2015\. “I was inspired by their capacity to celebrate life and love in the face of this disease,” Kraftowitz says. “You enter their house, and you feel it everywhere. They created that for themselves.” Despite his illness, Adox remains positive. “Things happen in life to everybody, but you have a choice in how you want to tell the story of those events,” he says. “I think that’s the most powerful tool to have as a person: to know that you’re able to create the story of you. It’s not just given to you by what happens.” Since the filming of this video, Adox’s situation has progressed. He now can only use his eyes to communicate, and his vision is declining. ## Transcript The first weird thing that I noticed was that I started getting cramping in my legs. Which I thought was just from exercise. I told my husband. He said you're over 40 now. Get used to it. What is interesting in retrospect is that I noticed that he was having a little bit of trouble keeping up with me. On the bicycle. And he used to be a much stronger cyclist than me. I was diagnosed with ALS in June of last year. By July I was using a cane. By late July I was using a walker. By September I was using the wheelchair. [ MUSIC ] Hi, everyone. Sorry, I've been so out of touch period. My life is gone a little bit more complicated. I'm doing As best I can giving. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] Scratch that. His motor functioning is profoundly impaired, but his sensory functioning is completely normal. He can feel every itch, every little itch that you have. That you could never scratch. Somebody has to do that for you. It's easy to imagine that your life gonna be miserable but it's actually remarkable to how the human body can adapt to things being taken away. So, I just started to develop acceptance that I am going to die from this. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] My whole life, I prioritized friendships over work. That's a good question, whether or not I made the right choice. If I'd saved that child, then look where I would have been. [ INAUDIBLE ] They feel so confident that I made the right choice in terms of life priorities That's really been the gift of this disease. We accepted the idea that maybe this was the miracle. Living in that space of love. [ BLANK_AUDIO ] Nature, this orchid plant, this tree. The bird. Those things I know are here and they're real. Everything else that I worried about hasn't happened yet. There are a lot of things that I want my son to learn to do. Things happen in life To everybody they do have a choice. You know how you wanna tell the story of those events. 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