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Very few deaths from Addison's Disease
If you find this site useful and would care to towards the continuing costs of maintaining ADNetwork, please click the button Thankyou, (MLW).
| |
with Diamond subscription. (MLW)" |
Very few deaths from Addison's Disease
A question which arises at times is: 'Do people ever die from Addison's Disease?'.......... The answer put simply is: 'Only VERY occasionally does a death occur in which Addison's Disease is a contributing factor.'
So, in practice, how many have been reported to ADNetwork since its inception........ Only THREE deaths where Addison's Disease was a contributing factor have come to ADNetwork's notice since I started this web site to provide up-to-date accurate information in 2004! I have to point out that these figures can only be applicable to those who have been diagnosed with the disease. It remains an unsatisfactory situation that there are many of us who have only been diagnosed after weeks, months, in some cases many years, repeatedly reporting to doctors and endocrinologists with the myriad of signs & symptoms that make up this mysterious disease. Therefore there are undoubtedly a considerable number of patients around the world who have either not been investigated or may have been misdiagnosed.
Obviously it is a fact of life (or death) that with approximately 1:40 000 of the world's population of around 6 billion known to have this rare disease, (the actual frequency rate varies from 1:25 000 to 1:100 000 from country to country) the same proportion of deaths around the world will be of people who have Addison's disease.
Thus only something like 150 000 living patients on earth have been diagnosed with the disease at any given time. Taking the average life span to be currently somewhere between 70-80 years of age worldwide, about 2000 (+/- 150) people diagnosed with Addison's die every year out of worldwide deaths totalling around 75-85 million.
Even if the average age at death were only 50, then those diagnosed with AD who die would still only number around 3000 per annum. i.e. only amounting to about 0.00375% of annual deaths. Patients diagnosed with AD and on adequate replacement therapy can expect to live a normal lifespan.
At this point I would like to refer you to the report on the two year survey on the signs & symptoms of AD I carried out several years ago. To read this survey report, (the first time the subject was investigated in depth,) please CLICK HERE
I deliberately kept the report in plain language, or added clear interpretations where I needed to use medical terminology, as I believe that patients who want to read the report and may not be completely 'au fait' with medical speak can equally understand it.
I reported on this website of the first case which came to light in 2004 when a coroner's inquest stated that neglect contributed to the sad death of a 14 year old male Addison's patient in Wales in 1990.
I was recently made aware by one of ADNetwork's many thousands of readers of two more deaths; one in 2007 and the latest in 2010.
All three cases are listed below in date order.
Please click on any name to select.
[a] Robbie Powell:
Died Morriston Hospital,Swansea, South Wales 1990.
Summary of Coroner's report 2004.
30 April 2004: A Coroner stated at an inquest into the death of a 14 year old boy that neglect "contributed to the death" of Robbie Powell in Swansea, South Wales.
The parents had been campaigning ever since to establish what happened, before finally getting the Coroner's verdict, 14 years later.
Source:UK Television news channels et al.
Robbie died in Morriston Hospital Swansea in 1990, from the effects of Addison's Disease, a rare potentially fatal but controllable condition, after 5 doctors all asserted before the boy was admitted to hospital that he was "not seriously ill".
One of the doctors concerned, a GP, is said to have been called out twice on the final day of young Robbie's life by the distressed parents but failed to identify the serious condition as Addison's Disease. He was finally taken to Morriston Hospital, where a doctor then recognised the condition, according to sources. However by then it was too late to save him despite the efforts of the hospital staff and the young boy sadly died.
ADNetwork continues to extend its heartfelt sympathy to young Robbie's parents, relatives, & friends.
Return to list of case histories
[b] Jill Marie Ross:
My sister, Jill Ross, died in 2007 at the age of 35. She had Addison's Disease. And she was a recovered alcoholic. She
had been sober almost 4 years, but began having some issues with a light reliance on painkillers. She used them to get
herself through the valleys of battling her Addison's. But as a recovered alcoholic, she was very sensitive to being reliant on
any form of narcotic substance. So she sought help from her doctors in getting completely away from the painkillers.
One of her doctors prescribed a controlled methadone treatment program. For 5 days she went to the methadone clinic,
and on each of those 5 days the doctor increased her dose. On the 5th day, she came home from the treatment center,
and she died. The cause: Methadone overdose. In his complete ignorance about Addison's Disease, the doctor didn't
realize that Addison's patients require a greatly reduced initial dosage of methadone, due to their body's inability to process
this drug as readily as non-Addison's patients. My girlfriend, who works for a large pharmaceutical company, obtained the
physician prescribing instructions for Methadone, and it states: "CAUTION: Certain 'special risk' patients must be treated
with a greatly reduced initial dosage." Among the defined "special risk" patients are those with Addison's.
So it was a doctor's ignorance about this disease that cost my sister her life. -Jay Ross
Extract: reprinted from: http://www.nadf.us/docs/runforjill.pdf ©
Return to list of case histories
[c] Jacob Jordan:
BAY MINETTE -- Family members said they warned officers to no avail about the fragile health of a 32-year-old Eight Mile man who died in the Baldwin County Corrections Center early Friday.
* (Please note frequency of Addison's disease varies worldwide from 1:25 000 to 1:100 000 people, not as quoted.)
Source:reprinted from http://blog.al.com/live/2010/07/mobile_man_dies_in_baldwin_jai.html
Died Boston USA, 6 February 2007.
Died: Baldwin County Jail, Alabama. July 2010.
Jacob Ashley Jordan was found dead in his cell at about 1 a.m., according to a news release issued Friday by the Baldwin County Sheriff's Office.
Sheriff's spokesman Maj. Anthony Lowery said Jordan had a "pre-existing medical condition," had been moved into the jail's medical wing and was treated by nurses. Jordan was in his cell at the time of his death, Lowery said.
He declined to give details, citing privacy laws that protect medical information, but did say there was "no evidence of any physical injury."
The early investigation indicated that Jordan was booked into the county jail on July 2 after being transferred from the Mobile Metro Jail on a second-degree possession of marijuana charge and hunting violations, Lowery said in the release. Late Thursday afternoon Jordan began experiencing health problems and was moved into the medical block for treatment and observation. He was under medical care of the jail's doctor and nurses at the time of his death, Lowery said.
The case is being investigated by the Baldwin County District Attorney's Office, the Alabama Bureau of Investigation, the Baldwin County Coroner's Office and the Sheriff's Office, as is standard policy. Jordan's body was transported to the Alabama Department of Forensic Sciences in Mobile for autopsy, according to Lowery.
Jordan's mother, Peggy Jordan of Eight Mile, said in a telephone interview Friday that there is much more to the story, and she wants answers.
"The sheriff told me JJ and three others were sitting in their cell watching television when JJ slumped over and his heart stopped," Jordan said. "They tried CPR, but couldn't revive him. I told them over and over he had Addison's disease and that he needed treatment. This didn't have to happen."
According to the National Institute of Health, Addison's is one form of adrenal insufficiency that strikes about four in every 1,000 people*
© Copyright:Connie Baggett, Press-Register