인간광우병으로 죽어가고 있는 영국 20대 중반의 젊은 아빠 딘 버렐(Dean Burrell)과 그 가족들이 겪고 있는 고통에 관한 이야기입니다.
딘 버렐은 영국 잉글랜드 동부의 노퍽(Norfolk)주에 살고 있는데, 럭비와 축구를 좋아하는 건강한 청년이었다고 합니다.
그는 아내 사라(Sarah)와 딸 클로에(Chloe)와 아들 찰리(Charlie)라는 어린 두 남매를 두고 있다고 합니다.
그의 어머니 메리 듀가드(Marie Dugard)도 47세로 아주 젊은 편이고, 그의 아버지 월리 버렐(Wally Burrell)은 공장 노동자로 일하고 있다고 합니다.
어머니 얘기에 따르면, 그는 지난해 7월 18일에 결혼했는데 그때만 하더라도 아무런 문제가 없었다고 합니다. 그러다가 지난해 8월 아프기 시작하여 뭔가 잘못되었다는 것을 알아챘고, 10월에 병원에 입원했다고 합니다.
그녀는 자신의 아들이 걸어가다가 뇌졸중에 걸린 것이 아닐까 추측했고, 사람들도 그가 술에 취해서 말을 얼버무리고 있다고 생각했다고 합니다.
그런데 지난 해 11월 6일 런던에서 공식적으로 인간광우병(vCJD) 진단을 받았다고 합니다.
전문가들은 그녀의 아들이 얼마나 더 살지 알 수 없다고 했는데, 자신의 아들이 현재 물을 삼키거나 음식물을 먹지도 못하고 있기 때문에 예후를 알 수 없다고 얘기했다고 합니다.
1995년 이후 현재까지 영국에서 인간광우병 확정진단을 받은 사람은 168명이며, 현재 딘 버렐(Dean Burrell)을 포함하여 4명이 생존해있다고 합니다.
전문가들은 딘 버렐(Dean Burrell)이 1984년~1996년 사이에 어느 때인가 광우병에 감염된 쇠고기를 먹고 인간광우병에 걸렸을 것으로 추정하고 있습니다. 그래서 그의 어머니에게 딘 버렐(Dean Burrell)이 어렸을 때 그녀가 어떤 음식을 먹였는지, 어디에 살았는지, 어느 학교를 다녔으며, 무슨 직업에 종사했는지에 대해 꼬치꼬치 캐물었나 봅니다.
그의 엄마는 자신의 아들이 도대체 왜 인간광우병에 걸렸는지, 어떻게 감염이 되었는지 알 도리가 없다고 합니다.
전문가들의 진단 및 역학조사 활동과 별개로 인간광우병 희생자 가족들이 당하는 고통은 이루 말할 수가 없을 것입니다.
참… 영국 언론의 기사에서 인간광우병을 현재도 아래와 같이 표현하더군요.
the human form of so-called mad cow disease, Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD)
검찰과 이명박 정부의 질병관리본부는 PD수첩 검찰기소와 재판에서 인간광우병(vCJD)은 크로이츠펠트-야콥병(CJD)의 분류에 포함되지 않는다고 주장하고 있는데요… 그렇다면 이 기사를 작성한 딕슨 기자도 검찰수사를 받아야 마땅한가요?
전세계에서 광우병, 인간광우병 등 프리온 질병을 연구하는 전문가들에게 웃음거리가 될 MBC PD수첩 항소심 재판이 5월부터 다시 재개될 예정입니다. 2심 재판부가 또다시 무죄를 선고했을 때, 검찰, 한나라당,조중동 등이 어떤 반응을 보일지 지켜봐야 할 것 같스니다.
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Tragic story of Norfolk CJD sufferer
http://www.edp24.co.uk/content/edp24/news/story.aspx?brand=EDPOnline&category=NewsSplash&tBrand=EDPOnline&tCategory=xDefault&itemid=NOED27%20Apr%202010%2018%3A20%3A55%3A273
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| Marie Dugard, mother of Dean Burrell who is dying of CJD. |
Now he is lying in a nursing home practically paralysed, after developing the human form of so-called mad cow disease, Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease (vCJD), at the age of 25.
From a healthy, outgoing young man, his condition deteriorated rapidly to the point where he is being looked after around the clock at Meadow House, a care home in Swaffham – one of only four sufferers with the disease.
Before being struck down by the rare illness, Mr Burrell lived in Hunstanton with his wife Sarah and his two young children Chloe, four, and her two-year-old brother Charlie. He worked as a scaffolder and lived for his sport – especially rugby.
And when his mother Marie Dugard , 47, makes her daily visit to his bedside tonight , she will take him an England rugby shirt – signed by all 15 members of the national team.
“He got married on July 18 last year. He was fine and there was nothing wrong with him or anything,” she said. “It was August last year was when he started getting ill. I noticed something was wrong. He went into hospital in October.
“I thought he had had a stroke by the way he was walking. People thought he was drunk and he was slurring his words. He went to London in November and he was officially diagnosed on November 6.
“They couldn’t put a time on how long he has. They cannot say because he is still swallowing and eating. It could be months or it could be weeks and weeks.”
Since 1995 there have been 168 confirmed vCJD deaths in the UK. Scientists believe it was spread to the human food chain by meat products derived from cattle eating feed which had been infected with BSE.
Mrs Dugard said: “They think he could have caught it anytime between 1984 and 1996. They wanted to know what I fed him when he was young, where he lived, what schools he had been to, what jobs he had done. But I’ve really got no idea how he got it.
“The boy has never ever complained about being ill. Even when he could talk, he never said to me – ‘why?’”
“I go to see Dean every night apart from one night a week. As a family we all muddle in. We help each other out as best we can.”
“Sarah has done a really good job of looking after him until it was time for him to go into a home. She’s done a fantastic job.”
“He will now stay there. They are lovely. They are fantastic people. He knows who we are. He will open his eyes and look at you but he cannot move his arms and legs.”
His father Wally Burrell, a factory worker who lives in Stradsett, also visits his son’s bedside each evening.
Mr Burrell travelled to see Manchester United play at old Trafford and to Disneyland with his family after being diagnosed with the disease.
“He loved it, he had to get it in sooner than later,” said Mrs Dugard. “We knew that he was going downhill. He enjoyed it and the children really enjoyed it.”
She said her son, who has a brother and sister Wayne, 28 and Sheena, 27, enjoyed sport most of all during his time at Lynn’s Park High School.
“Sport, sport, sport. That was all he lived for,” said Mrs Dugard. “He used to say to me ‘I only want to go to school to do my sport.’”
“He was in a rugby league, a football league. He did tennis, cricket. He used to go to Twickenham. Anything to do with sport. He was there.
“His sense of humour was wonderful. He really did have a sense of humour”, said Mrs Dugard.
Mrs Dugard is joining the families of fellow suffers and those touched by the disease on a march through London to the Houses of Parliament, on May 13, to help raise awareness of the illness.
“I do feel angry because it was the government that let it happen in that era. There are going to be other families. And they are all over the place.
“I just feel that up here by myself there is no one else to talk to who is going through the same thing here. It is too late to do anything for my son but it might help other people. I want to be doing something, but I don’t know what.
“I pray and I pray and I pray that it’s not going to happen to another family. I would hate another family to go through what we are going through.”
“I just want the ground to open up and swallow me and for it all to be taken back again.”
