Lateral Sclerosis : A Progressive Neurodegenerative Disease That Causes Devastating Debilitation And Raises Many Ethical Questions

“We can leave the mountain anytime we want but those with ALS are prisoners in their own body”-Alex Williams. People with ALS start losing their ability to move as the disease goes through their body. In the Book Tuesdays with Morrie by Mitch Albom Morrie Schwartz has ALS and he tries to give away all of his wisdom before he dies. Morrie teaches people to live life through showing love to family, not hiding or being scared of aging and accepting that Death is natural.

ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis) or Lou Gehrig’s Disease is a classified as a degenerative neurological disorder that inhibits motor neurons in the spinal cord and brain to function properly. This disease eventually results in paralysis and imminent death over a period of time. ALS patients have anywhere from a few months, to a couple years to live after diagnosis since their nervous systems are slowly destroyed, rendering the body useless, and sustaining life impossible.

The ice bucket challenge seemingly drenched the world back in 2014. It involved dumping a bucket full of freezing ice water on oneself in order to bring about awareness for the disease ALS. One would then nominate others to do the challenge as well, whilst giving a monetary donation of their choice to the ALS association for research funds thereafter. The challenge is basically broken down into three steps: accepting the challenge from nomination, uploading a video of the person doing the challenge, and giving a donation on that person 's behalf. Even after the ice bucket challenge craze, many people nationwide are unaware of what the disease is actually about.Informed individuals know that ALS is a life-devastating disease that can immediately turn a person 's life in a completely different direction. This disease can cause immense amounts of heartache on those that are part of the patient’s life, especially on the own patient. A strong, independent, and healthy being can turn into an incapacitated and no longer self- sufficient person in only a matter of few years. Control of the body gradually becomes irretrievable, but the mind is always aware; as a whole, it can be thought of as being mentally imprisoned in a dysfunctional and foreign body, only being able see life pass away like water through their fingers. Given that there is a boundless range of information on the subject in terms of ALS, only so much can be covered to be able to be considered an overview. There are

An individual diagnosed with a terminal illness has one major battle to fight. Families of terminally ill patients suffer significant effects related to an illness, forcing some households to have large debts and making them unable to afford food and other necessaries. One specific terminal illness is called Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig's disease. ALS is a disease affecting the human nervous system like the brain, muscles, and spinal cord. It is a deadly disease that cripples and kills its victims. ALS is a terminal illness that is characterized by specific symtoms and has treatments.

For many years, medical assisted death has been disagreed upon with the Canadian Quebec legislation, Bill 52, An Act respecting end-of-life care. Terminal ill patients have been fighting rights with their incurable conditions which caused them unbearable suffering. In many situations, death is always unacceptable since life was given for a reason. We all must pass away one day, although for some individuals, death can be measured by time due to tragic news that they have been informed about. In means of measuring time, we would all like to know when and how our death would be given. “Living is not good, but living is well. The wise man, therefore, lives as well as he should, not as long as he can...He will always think of life in terms of quality not quantity…Dying early or late is of no relevance, dying well or ill is…life is not to be bought at any cost. – The Stoic philosopher Seneca (4 B.C.- 69 A.D).” (Shneidman, 2001, p. 5). Sue Rodriguez, who was an advocate for medical assisted death, fought for legal rights in 1993. She was diagnosed with Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) in 1991. In a video to the Parliament, she poured her heart out. “If I cannot give consent to my own death, whose body is this? Who owns my life?” (CBC Radio-Canada, 1993). She lost the battle against Supreme Court Canada to legalize assisted death under the Criminal Code of Canada. In 1994, Rodriguez was given a “constitutional exemption” which allowed assisted death under many conditions. In

Mrs. Priest is a former certified nurse who was diagnosed with ALS three years ago. “In my dreams I kiss, speak and spit. I cook, eat and drink. I dress myself and bathe myself, drive my car, …”(Priest 1) this is the introduction to her article about her life after diagnosing with ALS. These sort of disease with no cure, not only makes a person, suffer from the physical disability itself, but also there are other aspects of hardship and distress proffered with it. “To counter the emotional lability--a symptom of bulbar ALS--my family doctor prescribed a combination of dextromethorphan and quinidine, the two active ingredients in a product not available in Canada” (Priest 1). One of the aspects which helps making a terminal patient life more miserable is cost and accessibility to the medicines itself. “Although the percentage of the world’s population without access to essential medicines has fallen from an estimated 37% in 1987 to around 30% in 1999, the total number of people without access remains between 1.3 and 2.1 billion people” (A World Health Organization resource). When it comes to technology, computers and gadgets, living in the first world countries is always preponderant, but still knowing of people who doesn’t have a proper access to the essential medicines is something we should concern about. The author later on mention about “tortuous electromyography” (Priest) or “inserting a feeding tube in me”(Priest) despite her initial vow to avoid all medical intervention. So someone with proper resources to the medicines and treatment would suffer the same as the person without accessing them, the only difference is that with advanced progress in medicine, the person with proper resources, would have this miserable life for couple of years while it would be couple of month for a person without it. Last but not the

It was not long after I started my job at a long term acute care center that I had a patient who came for vent weaning to our facility. This patient was unresponsive for a while and her oldest child had the durable power of attorney (DPOA). By the time the patient came to us, she was able to communicate by mouth wording or using the alphabet board. She was alert and oriented sometimes, and confused other times. Her problems started with stroke and respiratory depression, but doctors found out that she had very progressed form of cancer and not much chance of survival as they were treating her for stroke. The problem was that DPOA still wanted the patient to be full code and would not listen to the health care members to consider her mother’s

Just imagine, you are a 44-year-old married man with 2 young children and you were diagnosed with ALS and that your diagnosis is terminal. You were told that you would lose all muscle function, never will be able to hold your kids or your loving wife again, or enjoy life with your loved ones. You will first lose the use of your legs; you will not be able to walk anymore and you will have to use a wheelchair to move around. Next you will lose the use of your arms and no longer able to feed or dress yourself. You will experience vocal cord spasms and eventually lose your voice, you would no longer be able to tell your kids, “I love you”. You will lose your bowel function and must

Questions: Describe the typical person who has ALS. Cecil is caucasian. Does Cecil fit into this category? Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis is a nervous system disorder, yet many of the symptoms are muscular in nature.

Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, otherwise known as ALS or Lou Gherig’s disease, is a neurological disease which attacks nerve cells causing them to die and leave the muscles paralyzed. People with ALS lose strength and control of muscles, weakening them and causing them to start to wear away. Eventually the muscles stop working all together and cause paralysis in places such as arms, legs and other parts of the body. When the nerve cells in the diaphragm and chest wall are attacked and the muscles are paralyzed, the person can lose the ability to breathe without assistance, or sometimes at all. Respiratory failure is the cause of death for most people with ALS. Currently there are approximately 2500-3000 Canadians that are living with ALS and according to www.als.ca “Every day two or three Canadians die of the

According to many, chronically ill people feel more dignified and become less of a burden if they choose to go under physician assisted suicide. This is one of the most commonly considered factors sick people will think about, resulting in them following through with euthanasia. Angie Bloomquist, a woman with Lou Gehrig's Disease which resulted in the collapse of all her muscles, knows her presence is putting a strain on the people she loves most (Freeman). She is fighting for her right to die peacefully through euthanasia. A study conducted in Oregon, the only state where euthanasia is legal, 66% of hopelessly ill people choose this method of “care” because of the fact they are a burden (Freeman). Like many others, Bloomquist’s pain is leaving

This study examines the neurologic changes in sclerosis (MS) and what might cause the immune system’s attack on itself. Furthermore, the paper investigates the diagnostics of sclerosis with magnetic resonance imaging and in addition to that, a spin echo experiment of t1 and t2 relaxation is analyzed. The study then examines how the different t1 and t2 relaxations make it possible for us to make images with contrasts between different tissues and MS plaques and thereby be able to diagnose a person with sclerosis. By studying different kinds of medical treatments’ mechanism of action and their side effects, the paper discusses the importance of taking account of individual reactions and how the investigation of new treatments causes ethical dilemmas.

On December 1, 2012, a patient by the name of John Dough walks into the medical assistant’s office. The patient is five foot 11 inches tall, currently he is 70 years old and weighs approximately 211 pounds. The patient has no known allergies does not smoke and has a relatively clean health record. After filling out the patient medical history forms, the patient is seen by the doctor. The patient explains to the doctor that lately he has had trouble lifting object he would not normally have trouble with, as well as walking short distances, and being very fatigued. After further examination the patient explains how he recently found a tick on his back and removed it, but now there is a

A distinctive characteristic of ALS is that although the motor neurons die, the brain, cognitive functions and sensory neurons stay intact (Porth & Matfin, 2009). This makes the disease especially devastating because patients become trapped inside their dying body, with a fully alert mind, but are unable to move. It is not known what causes the exact death of the motor neurons in the body, but “five percent to 10% of cases are familial; the others are believed to be sporadic” (Porth & Matfin, 2009, p.

Case Study: A thirty six year old male has developed severe muscle weakness throughout the body. The condition began fifteen months ago with a left foot drop and within a year, he described difficulty with speech and swallowing, muscle twitching and cramping, and muscular atrophy throughout the upper and lower limbs. Within the last two months, his breathing has become more difficult, and there has been a noticeable difference in his voice. Prior to the fifteen months, he presented little to no symptoms. The patient, a medical doctor, has a wife and two young children.