Worker Died of Rare Disease, Inquest Told

By GURDIP THANDI

A WALSALL factory worker died from an extremely rare disease brought on by a growth hormone given him as a young child, an inquest heard today.

The death of 37-year-old Matthew Hall was only the 51st of its kind in the country, the hearing at Walsall Manor Hospital was told.

Dr Tim Harvey told the court that Mr Hall, of Selby Way, Walsall, had been given the hormone at the age of two at Birmingham’s Children’s Hospital and the treatment had been successful. But medics later discovered that the hormone was contaminated with the rare Iatrogenic Prion disease.

Dr Harvey said: "Mr Hall was born with pituitary deficiencies and was given the appropriate hormones.

"He grew up to a normal height of 5ft 8in, got married and lived a normal life until around last December when he developed strange symptoms"He was very unsteady when I saw him and after looking at his medical history I realised that he had Iatrogenic Prion disease.

"The disease is very much like a computer virus in that it changes the memory system and causes it to disintegrate"It is a disaster when it occurs and is a very distressing condition."

Mr Hall was one of around 2,000 children given the growth hormone between 1959 and 1985.

But the treatment was stopped in Britain in 1985 after people developed the illness and medics realised the hormones were contaminated.

Dr Harvey added that this was the first case of its kind this year and an autopsy would be carried out on Mr Hall, with the permission of his wife Pamela, in London for research purposes.

Black Country Coroner Robin Balmain recorded a verdict of fatal disease resulting from the administration to Mr Hall of the pituitary growth hormone FACTFILEThis condition is a rare, fatal brain disease affecting animals and humans, and includes diseases such as BSE or "mad cow" disease in cattle and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease(CJD) in humans.

l The diseases are characterised by certain misshapen protein molecules that appear in brain tissue.

l Scientists believe abnormal Prion protein, which clumps together and accumulates in brain tissue, is the likely cause of the brain damage but they still do not know what causes it.

l There is good evidence that a form of Human Prion Disease – variant CJD(vCJD) – first spread to humans from cattle infected with BSE