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Doubt cast on CJD death

Friday 28 June 1996 23:02 BST
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A coroner's verdict that a former abattoir worker with CJD died from natural causes met with disbelief today.

Leonard Franklin, 53, deteriorated from full fitness into a shambling wreck in only seven months because of Creutzfelt-Jakob Disease, a York inquest heard.

But Coroner Donald Coverdale said: "I have formed the view this is a natural disease and my verdict is one of death from natural causes."

Franklin's close friend, Pat Broadhead, said afterwards: "They don't know enough to say that. The big question of how Len caught CJD remains unanswered.

"I don't believe it was a natural death - he really loved his roast beef and had been an abattoir cattle herder. If it was not beef or cattle, what was it?"

Franklin's former wife, Olga, 52, of Alcuin Avenue, York, said: "He loved his roast beef and steaks and I'm convinced that is what killed him, together with his work with cattle.

"I think it should have been an open verdict if people were not 1,000- per-cent sure."

A neuropathologist, Dr Leslie Bridges, from Leeds General Infirmary, who carried out an examination on Franklin's brain, told the inquest that he had died from CJD.

It was of the "usual form", and not the new variant, he said. However, it was such a rare disease there was no statistical proof of a link between Mr Franklin's work in an abattoir and the disease.

Dr Bridges said that Mr Franklin's CJD was the only case involving a worker in an abattoir since l990.

Mrs Broadhead told the inquest: "He loved meat, especially beef. He had an enormous appetite."

She said that he had gradually declined over a period of seven months. At first, he lost his balance and his sense of direction. He became unable to concentrate and suffered from moods swings.

As the months went by, he lost weight and shook uncontrollably until he died at his home in Nicholas Street, York, last February.

Mr Franklin worked at an abattoir for 10 months in 1989 but he was not involved in the slaughter process.

Scientists are still trying to determine whether CJD can be caught by eating beef that might have been infected with BSE. They are also concerned that abattoir workers might be at greater risk of developing the disease.

However, diagnosing CJD is difficult, and usually requires a post-mortem before it can be confirmed.

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