A Short Stay in Switzerland–Videos

Posted on January 4, 2011. Filed under: Blogroll, Communications, Video, Wisdom | Tags: A Short Stay in Switzerland, Assisted Suicide, BBC, Euthanasia, Julie Walters, Progressive supranuclear palsy, Right to Die, Videos |

A Short Stay in Switzerland PT 1

A Short Stay in Switzerland PT 2

A Short Stay in Switzerland PT 3

A Short Stay in Switzerland PT 4

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A Short Stay in Switzerland PT 8

A Short Stay in Switzerland PT 9

Background Articles and Videos

Last moments of Dr Anne. . . A death with dignity or a real tragedy?

“…West doctor Anne Turner, who was suffering from a rare brain disease, committed assisted suicide in Switzerland yesterday.

Within hours her death had sparked a heated debate on assisted suicide and euthanasia TRISTAN CORK reports

IN an anonymous room in a flat in Zurich yesterday, Bath doctor Anne Turner held a cup of water in her hand – it held a lethal cocktail of drugs.

The nurse present told her that if she swallowed it, she would sleep for a couple of minutes, then fall into a coma, and then die peacefully.

The day before, Dr Turner had enjoyed a short, bitter-sweet holiday in the Swiss city. Yesterday lunch-time she drank the cup and closed her eyes. Within minutes she had died. Today, if she was still alive, would have been her 67th birthday.

For years, the mother of three ran a family planning clinic in Bath. Generations of young women went to her for help and advice, bringing new life into the world in a managed, ordered and planned way. Sadly, society, the NHS and the laws of England wouldn’t meet Dr Turner’s wishes for her own life to end in the same managed, ordered and planned way. Her wish had initially, but temporarily, split her family and her death yesterday sparked a new debate on assisted suicide.

Dr Turner retired from her clinic in 2002 to look after her husband – well known Bath doctor Jack Turner – when he was diagnosed with the rare degenerative disease multiple system atrophy (MSA). He died later that year.

Dr Anne survived breast cancer in 2004, but was then diagnosed with a similar degenerative disease to the one that claimed her husband, Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSP). She had seen her husband die a lingering and painful death and was determined it would not happen to her.

Despite being in the relatively early stages of PSP, Dr Turner made the decision to travel to Switzerland, where assisted suicide is not a crime, and end her life at the Dignitas Clinic in Zurich. …”

http://www.allbusiness.com/medicine-health/diseases-disorders-neurological/12890791-1.html

Actor Dudley Moore’s battle with PSP (progressive supranuclear palsy)

Progressive Supranuclear Palsy 1

Progressive Supranuclear Palsy 2

Progressive Supranuclear Palsy 3

Managing PSP: Part 1

Managing PSP: Part2 

Managing PSP: Part 2a

Managing PSP: Part3 

Managing PSP: Part 4

Progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP)

“…Progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) (or the Steele-Richardson-Olszewski syndrome, after the Canadian physicians who described it in 1963) is a rare degenerative disease involving the gradual deterioration and death of selected areas of the brain.^[1][2]

Males and females are affected approximately equally and there is no racial, geographical or occupational predilection. Approximately 6 people per 100,000 population have PSP.

It has been described as a tauopathy.^[3]

Symptoms and signs

The initial symptom in two-thirds of cases is loss of balance, lunging forward when mobilizing, speed-walking, knocking into objects and people and falls.

Other common early symptoms are changes in personality, general slowing of movement, and visual symptoms.

Later symptoms and signs are dementia (typically including loss of inhibition and ability to organize information), slurring of speech, difficulty swallowing, and difficulty moving the eyes, particularly in the vertical direction. The latter accounts for some of the falls experienced by these patients as they are unable to look up or down.

Some of the other signs are poor eyelid function, contracture of the facial muscles, a backward tilt of the head with stiffening of the neck muscles, sleep disruption, urinary incontinence and constipation.

The visual symptoms are of particular importance in the diagnosis of this disorder. Notably, the ophthalmoplegia experienced by these patients mainly concerns voluntary eye movement. Patients tend to have difficulty looking down (a downgaze palsy). Involuntary eye movement, as elicited by Bell’s phenomenon, for instance, may be closer to normal. On close inspection, eye movements called “square wave jerks” may be visible when the patient fixes at distance. These are fine movements, similar to nystagmus, except that they are not rhythmic in nature. Difficulties with convergence (convergence insufficiency), where the eyes come closer together while focusing on something near, like the pages of a book, is typical. Because the eyes have trouble coming together to focus on things at near, the patient may complain of double vision when reading.

Cardinal manifestations:

• Supranuclear ophthalmoplegia
• Neck dystonia
• Parkinsonism
• Pseudobulbar palsy
• Behavioral and Cognitive impairment
• Imbalance and Difficulties walking
• Frequent Falls

 Prognosis

There is currently no effective treatment or cure for PSP, although some of the symptoms can respond to nonspecific measures. The average age at symptoms onset is 63 and survival from onset averages 7 years with a wide variance.

Differential diagnosis

PSP is frequently misdiagnosed as Parkinson’s disease because of the slowed movements and gait difficulty, or as Alzheimer’s disease because of the behavioral changes. It is one of a number of diseases collectively referred to as Parkinson plus syndromes. A poor response to levodopa along with symmetrial onset can help differentiate this disease from PD.^[4]

Genetics

Fewer than 1% of those with PSP have a family member with the same disorder. A variant in the gene for tau protein called the H1 haplotype, located on chromosome 17, has been linked to PSP.^[5]

Nearly all people with PSP received a copy of that variant from each parent, but this is true of about two-thirds of the general population. Therefore, the H1 haplotype appears to be necessary but not sufficient to cause PSP. Other genes, as well as environmental toxins are being investigated as other possible contributors to the cause of PSP.

 Pathophysiology

The affected brain cells are both neurons and glial cells. The neurons display neurofibrillary tangles, which are clumps of tau protein, a normal part of a brain cell’s internal structural skeleton. These tangles are often different from those seen in Alzheimer’s disease, but may be structurally similar when they occur in the cerebral cortex.^[6] Their chemical composition is usually different, however, and is similar to that of tangles seen in corticobasal degeneration.^[7] Lewy bodies are seen in some cases, but it is not clear whether this is a variant or an independent co-existing process.^[8][9]

The principal areas of the brain affected are:

• the basal ganglia, particularly the subthalamic nucleus, substantia nigra and globus pallidus;
• the brainstem, particularly the portion of the midbrain where “supranuclear” eye movement resides;
• the cerebral cortex, particularly that of the frontal lobes;
• the dentate nucleus of the cerebellum;
• and the spinal cord, particularly the area where some control of the bladder and bowel resides.

Some consider PSP, corticobasal degeneration, and frontotemporal dementia to be variations of the same disease.^[10][11] Others consider them separate diseases.^[12][13] PSP has been shown to occasionally co-exist with Pick’s disease.^{[14]   …”}

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Progressive_supranuclear_palsy

Julie Walters wins Best Actress for MO- British Academy Television Awards 2010

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