Personal Injury Law

Roane County Deaths Blame On Classic Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD)

After reporting four cases of classic Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (CJD) last year, Tennessee health officials are saying the death of a Kingston woman in February and a Rockwood man earlier this month are also due to prion diseases.  We'd noted in our previous posting that one death and a critical  illness then --both in Roane County, Tennessee-- had generated some interesting local comments.  We wondered if there could be a "cluster' of rare disease.  Then we heard on our own.

 As 54 year old Brad Smith neared death on St. Patrick's Day, his brother Rod wrote us, saying:

The "man in Rockwood" is my 54 year old brother. He is now near death, a very difficult trial for his wife, daughters, and extended family. Initial symptoms began in August and the process has been downhill from there. Only after a specific request by his wife was he tested for CJD. A spinal tap came back with the positive diagnosis of CJD. Hearing about the other recent local death in Kingston was alarming, but now with your help learning of these other cases in Roane County it is definitely not sporadic cases of one in a million, but here we have four cases in a county of 52,000.

The next day on March 18th, Brad Smith died of  CJD.  Rod let us know with this report:

My brother passed this morning (3/18/09). He is mentioned in the above article as the man from Rockwood. His symptoms first showed in August. We found out two weeks ago through a spinal tap that it was CJD. Symptoms seemed to be in line with what CDC Atlanta shows as for classic CJD. But why so many cases in Roane County of a supposedly "sporadic" disease?

Health officials are blaming classic CDJ, not the variant CDJ that is related to Mad Cow Disease as the causes of the deaths of Mary Lee McGill, 69, and Brad Smith. We do not think they knew one another, but lived about a dozen miles apart.   This one deserves a careful look.   The people they've left behind deserve no less.

There's a story in the Knoxville News here.

Full post as published by Mad Cow Blog on March 24, 2009 (boomark / email).