Moreover, the new variant of CJD seems to attack people decades younger than Smith and to take more than twice as long to run its course as the disease that killed him. We don't know exactly what it does, but it's a friendly kind of protein. There it does its damage. Coordination is lost. Movements become involuntary.
Dementia sets in.
Victims may lapse into a coma. In a year or less, most are dead. Because CJD is so rare, it can easily be misdiagnosed at the outset. There is no good way to screen patients for CJD, and imaging techniques do not show it. When Smith became ill last summer, he twice sought help at Lutheran Hospital, his brother said.