Not sure if this was discussed earlier...

by DJ_Smerk Wed 15 Sep 2010, 23:46

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1312267/Cricket-star-Stuart-Broads-stepmother-killed-escape-struggle-motor-neurone-disease.html

Very sad.

by Zat Wed 15 Sep 2010, 23:52

MND is a real bastard of a disease. No chance of treatment at all, the slowly increasing symptons gradually disable your body, but leave your brain intact.

I've known a couple of people who've passed away from it. Not a pleasant ending.

by Growler Thu 16 Sep 2010, 00:40

Spot on description Zat. It's 20 years ago now, but I saw it at first hand when my then father-in-law was diagnosed.

He was a time-served tradesman carpenter/joiner. He was diagnosed with MND in early spring - by midsummer he could just get from one room to another with furnature for support. Six months after diagnosis he was wheelchair bound, but could still use his arms for short periods ...... feed himself, turn the pages of the newspaper on the table, that kind of thing.

By the end of the year he was a 55 year old man in a 9 month old body. We were spoon-feeding gruel in one end (if he could manage to swallow it) and changing a nappy the other. If only that was the worst of it ...... to hear him wheezing & rattling as fluid got on his lungs, unable to cough & clear the gunk from his tubes was bloody heart breaking - all the while knowing that his mind was still that of a man in the prime of his life.

We went to stay every weekend so mum-in-law could go into town shopping or whatever. Wife would go with her I'd look after dad. If he ever had to travel - eg hospital, honestly the work it took .... it was easier to deploy a squadron of jets overseas.

He clung on to life for another 12 months - on increasing doses of morphine (which at the end wasn't even touching the pain.) His face aged 30 years, and it was such a relief when I found him dead ... the pain was gone, and he actually looked his age.

It's one of the cruellest of diseases, and if someone allowed an animal to suffer to such an extent, they'd chuck the key away. Having seen it so close, I'm not surprised Mrs B took her own life ..... I think I would too, in that situation.