[lit-ideas] Re: Superman Returns
- From: "Lawrence Helm" <lawrencehelm@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 2 Jul 2006 16:07:09 -0700
Robert:
I don't know if you've had anyone close to you die in this fashion, but it
is common for everyone involved to refer to the disease as Alzheimer's --
even if the doctor's call it dementia, as in my mother's case: "Dementia is
a loss of brain function. It is not a single disease. Instead, dementia
refers to a group of illnesses that involve memory, behavoir, learning, and
communicating problems. The problems are progressive, which means they
slowly get worse." From
<http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000739.htm>
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000739.htm
Specifically, my mother had "vascular dementia (loss of brain function due
to a series of small strokes)".
Lawrence
-----Original Message-----
From: lit-ideas-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:lit-ideas-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of Robert Paul
Sent: Sunday, July 02, 2006 3:41 PM
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: Superman Returns
Lawrence Helm wrote:
> I didn't actually see the death certificate but I was led to believe it
said
> something like "complications associated with dementia."
Dementia is a cluster of symptoms, specifically various degrees of
cognitive impairment. This is the definition of dementia from
www.alz.org/Resources/Glossary.asp
'The loss of intellectual functions (such as thinking, remembering, and
reasoning) of sufficient severity to interfere with a person's daily
functioning. Dementia is not a disease itself but rather a group of
symptoms that may accompany certain diseases or conditions. Symptoms may
also include changes in personality, mood, and behavior. Dementia is
irreversible when caused by disease or injury but may be reversible when
caused by drugs, alcohol, hormone or vitamin imbalances, or depression.'
If your mother's dementia was caused by an ischemic stroke (a blockage
of the arteries supplying blood to the brain) or by a series of them
over time, it's not hard to see that her dementia and the loss of blood
to her brain were related (in fact one would have followed from the
other). But it is the dementia which would have followed from the stroke
not the stroke from the dementia and the explanation given on the death
certificate is in that way misleading.
> I think emphysema is in the same category. My father died of that. At
some
> point his heart stopped, but would one want to quibble and call it heart
> failure?
This isn't really analogous. Severe emphysema can and usually does lead
to loss of pulmonary function. Yes, the heart will stop but the reason
it stops is that the heart is a muscle and can no longer work when its
supply of oxygenated blood fails. The heart stops at death but the
reason it stops is of interest to the medical examiner.
Robert Paul
Reed College
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