Mad cow disease eroding a young life

Ana Rhodes

Knight Ridder Newspapers

MIAMI (KRT)˜ Just last year she was a University of Miami grad with a shy smile and big dreams.

Now, the 23-year-old woman, whose family wants her known only by her first name, Charlene, is wasting away, diagnosed with the United States' only known case of mad cow disease.

She has lost nearly 40 pounds and has to be fed through a tube in a bedroom of her father's South Florida home. A blue T-shirt and sweat pants hang off her emaciated body. She no longer can walk or talk.

''She was a sweetheart, always very happy, always wanting to help,'' said her sister Lisa. ``All we can do now is make sure she is comfortable.''

Charlene, who was born in England and moved to the States with her father and siblings at age 13, was diagnosed in April with new variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease ˜ the human version of mad cow. British doctors say she got the disease from eating infected beef before her family moved to South Florida in 1992.

Doctors have told the family that the disease can lie dormant from five to 40 years.

There is no known cure.

Her father, Patrick, has no idea how or when Charlene was exposed to the disease, and worries now for his two other children, Dave, 26, and Lisa, 22, who also were born in England and now live with him in South Florida.

He is angry at the British government.

''From the time people started getting sick they should have gotten rid of all the cows, made sure all the beef was removed from stores,'' he said.

Patrick blames the United Kingdom for not doing more to protect its citizens when the government first became aware of the disease in cows in 1986.

But the connection to humans did not come until 10 years later. There have been 117 known deaths of humans being infected with mad cow disease in England, according to the University of Edinburgh.

Symptoms of the disease surfaced in Charlene last October. She attended the University of Miami on a full scholarship, graduating in 2001 with a bachelor's degree in business administration. She had hoped to become a lawyer.

''She was so proud that she was the first one in the family to graduate with a university degree,'' said her aunt, Sharon.

She had been working in The Miami Herald's circulation department for seven years, including her years at the University of Miami.

She became forgetful and started having violent mood swings. She began stumbling into things.

Patrick kept telling himself his daughter was worried about not having landed the perfect job after graduation.

In December, Charlene ran a red light in her white Toyota Corolla and totaled the car.

Two weeks later, when her father Patrick was helping her pick out a new car he noticed she would ask the same question over and over. He knew something was wrong. ``And she called the auto insurance company and forgot what she was going to talk about.''

In January, her Miami Herald supervisor called and asked Patrick to come pick up his daughter, telling him she was depressed and could no longer focus at work. Her hands shook.

Doctors here, unfamiliar with the symptoms, told the family Charlene was depressed and prescribed antidepressants.

Her mother Alison, who is divorced from Charlene's father, came from England to take her daughter back with her, to give her a vacation.

She noticed how sick Charlene was and immediately put her under doctor's care. In April, after dozens of tests and visits to a number of British neurologists, her mother got the devastating news.

''I just couldn't believe it,'' said Alison.

``She kept asking me what was going on and was she going to get better. But by April she wasn't aware of anything anymore.''

Returning to South Florida after the diagnosis, Charlene could barely walk and soon after, she could no longer talk. Family members said she became aggressive, biting and hitting, climbing on furniture.

As her family speaks, Charlene smiles occasionally, surrounded by Winnie the Poohs.

Alison is most saddened by what her daughter could have become, what could have been.

``It's hard to watch her now, knowing what kind of person she was, how she worked and how determined she was, how she loved life.''

Copyright 2009 - Daily Egyptian