Actor-comedian Bernie Mac's Death Raises Sarcoidosis Awareness

Actor-comedian Bernie Mac lived with sarcoidosis for more than two decades before he died of pneumonia Aug. 9. 2008.


DAN CHILDS (ABC News) writes: Mac's Death Raises Sarcoidosis Awareness
Sarcoidosis Community Mourns Bernie Mac; Says More Awareness Needed for Disease

For Andrea Wilson of Chicago, Valentine's Day 1994 marked the end of an eight-year search to identify the mystery disease that had turned her life into a living hell -- a daily routine of pain, fatigue and seemingly unconnected symptoms.
Bernie Mac
Actor-comedian Bernie Mac lived with sarcoidosis for more than two decades before he died of pneumonia Aug. 9. 2008.


"I'd been consistently misdiagnosed for eight years," she recalls. "I was told it was multiple sclerosis. I was told it was a brain tumor. I was told it was just stress -- that I was freaking out, that it was nothing."

But it was only when a chest X-ray revealed massive scarring in her lungs that doctors determined that she suffered from sarcoidosis -- a condition in which the body's immune system triggers uncontrolled inflammation, wreaking havoc on internal organs.

Wilson, like most others with sarcoidosis, experienced particularly severe inflammation in her lungs. But even then, medical professionals hesitated to believe Wilson could have suffered the degree of damage the X-ray showed.

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