There has been an interesting court ruling today in Spain. A Basque terrorist (Jon Bienzobas) has been sentenced to 30 years for shooting and killing attorney general Tomás y Valiente right in front of his son. It was considered that the victim's son developed Parkinson's disease as a consequence of post-traumatic stress and Bienzobas has been sentenced to pay him 400.000 Euros (about half a million $).

The most interesting part is, obviously, that it has been now legally established that you can develop Parkinsonism due to extreme stress, which leaves the door open for many law suits in the future.

Theresa,
That's very interesting - does it say how old the son was at the time or how long it took for symptoms to appear?

paula

My Doctor, at the time of my diagnosis, flat out denied the connection between stress and the cause of parkinsons, it became full blown after childbirth. He said that as Parkinson's slowly comes on, an incident like a car accident will worsen symptoms and then people notice the symptoms for the first time. This was true with me. I knew I had it only in retrospect. I can't see getting that to stick in court with what we know presently about the cause of this thing.
Best Regards, redbird

My husband had had symptoms of PD for many years, but nothing was conclusive. On a Thursday afternoon about 5 PM in May '98 our home was struck by a tornado (we were on steps going to basement) and we lost 48 large trees, 7 which came through the house. Of the 350 homes destroyed or damaged no one was injured seriously). My husb had a seizure on Sat. morning and the ER drs. said he was experiencing Post Traumatic Stress.

The tremors and weeping continued for weeks, and he could hardly walk. We finally got an apt. with a PD specialist who took one look at him and dx PD. His dx has recently changed to MSA.

His brother developed PD after a horrible mis-dx of a brain tumor with his wife. By the time she was seen at Mayo, it was too late and she died several agonizing months later. His brother deleloped weeping, shaking, stumbling feet and he was placed in a facility for mentally ill. By the time he was dx with PD and instead of severe depression and released, it was too late for him to rebound.



I have been told that there is traumatic induced PD which can result from a severe illness. I guess that is why every illness takes a little more away from the person with PD.

PD is such a terrible illness with such terrible misinformation floating around, even in the medical community. It behoves us to always be very vigilant.

I send best wishes to everyone on this journey of life. Adelle

Dear Adele,

I am so sorry you have had to watch your family suffer so. I hope things go better for you in the future.

Doesn't stress lower our immune system? Could leave us open for a unknown viral attack. Is there anyone on this board who has not suffered some type of severe stress before their diagnosis?

Vicky

Paula, I have not been able to find out the exact age of Tomás y Valiente's son, but he was around 30 then and free of symptons.

Most of you know that my PD symptons set in massively overnight, I was going through a very stressful period and my husband had a bad car accident exactly a week before.

What I find very interesting about this court sentence is that YES, it is now legally confirmed that PD can be caused by post-traumatic stress and that this sentence could initiate a cascade of law suits. Mobbing on the job has long been acknowledged as a cause for depression and even suicide, for instance...who or what circumstances triggered your Parkinson's, everybody?

when I received my dxd after the death of my mother & my father

and all clinical trial pharma should pay very close attention to this!
thank you teresa!

dear Adelle,
bless your heart.

From typicallyspanish.com

National
ETA killer gets 30 years for murder of top judge
By h.b.
May 18, 2007 - 12:11 AM


The ETA terrorist Jon Bienzobas, has been sentenced to 30 years in prison for the murder of the ex President of the Constitutional Court, Francisco Tomás y Valiente.

The National Court considered it proved that Bienzobas was a member of ETA’s Madrid cell, and that in February 1996 he killed the judge in his office by shooting him as many as three times in the head.

He also will have to compensate the widow and children of the victim for the serious psychological problems they have faced since the murder.
Total payments to the family of 900,000 have been ordered.


© typicallyspanish.com

Thanks, Lavender, I could provide a link to a copy of the full sentence, but it's in Spanish (and legal jargon at that).
It does seem that many of us developed PD after a traumatic event in our lives. Maybe we would have developed it just the same, but 20 or 30 years later, allowing us to lead normal, healthy lives.

Adelle, what a hard blow for anyone, your husband and his brother, both, getting PD after traumatic experiences! Your brother-in-law's story is especially tragic, it reminds me of the people described in Oliver Saks' famous book "Awakenings", who spent all their lives locked away in mental institutions after getting encephalitis from the 1918 flu virus, and who 50 years later were found to have a severe form of Parkinsonsism instead of a mental illness.
Even nowadays many people with PD are often mistaken for drunks, due to our inherent balance problems, and stopped by the Police. As if we didn't have punishment enough!