Families to tell of nv-CJD anguish

[Guest guest]

Dear All,

Won't be pretty!

But, la luta continua, Lynette.

________________________________________

THE INDEPENDENT, London, October 24, 1998

Families to tell of nv-CJD

anguish

By Eileen

THE PUBLIC inquiry into BSE will next week

hear harrowing accounts from families who have

seen their loved ones die from the human form of

" mad cow " disease.

The statements from 15 relatives tell how family

members lost their memory, lashed out at their

own children and suffered depression as the

degenerative neurological disorder, new-variant

Creutzfeldt Jakob disease (nv-CJD), devastated

their brain.

The inquiry, which has already heard evidence

from farmers, medical and government officials,

was set up after victims' families pressed for an

explanation of how and why relatives came to

develop the disease, which has been linked to

eating BSE-infected meat.

Esther Beaney describes how her partner Barry

Baker, 32, a " loving, gentle " forestry worker from

Kent who had once weighed 15 stones, looked

like a prisoner of war by the time he died in June

1996.

The father of two started complaining of

headaches and feeling increasingly unwell in 1995

and began showing signs of obsessive behaviour,

including continually washing his hands. By the

end of the year his speech had become slurred

and his behaviour aggressive.

In her statement Ms Beaney tells how he would

put a pair of socks on the same foot and then

become abusive because he could not find the

other sock.

She adds: " Barry easily became agitated by our

two daughters. On several occasions, he pulled

Kirstie, our youngest daughter, across the floor

by one leg and smacked her with the palm of his

hand straight across the face.

" Our eldest daughter, Kayleigh, who was five at

the time, started to behave in an uncharacteristic

fashion. During the week, she would ask me

whether I was going to work at the weekend. She

told me that she did not want to stay with her

father because, in my absence, he was hitting her.

Prior to his illness, Barry never hit our daughters. "