Family finds hospital willing to give experimental CJD treatment

doi:10.1136/bmj.326.7379.8/a

BMJ 2003;326:8 ( 4 January )

News

Family finds hospital willing to give experimental CJD treatment

Owen Dyer, London
The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

A teenager suffering from variant CJD, the human form of mad cow disease, is to have unprecedented treatment with a drug injectedinto his brain after the high court in Belfast gave the go-ahead.

Jonathan Simms, 18, from Belfast, is expected to have the treatment with pentosan polysulphate within weeks after a NorthernIreland hospital agreed that it could be carried out in its operatingtheatres.

His family, which is desperate for him to have the pioneering treatment in a last attempt to slow down the progress of thedisease, was forced back to court after winning a ruling in theEnglish high court the previous week. The hospital wanted theNorthern Ireland high court's approval because the English rulinghas no effect in the province, which is a separate legaljurisdiction.

Jonathan's family was one of two fighting for the treatment for their teenage children who have variant Creutzfeldt-Jakobdisease . . . [Full text of this article]