TheAnatomiser

It’s difficult to know where to start with Ms. Goody. Her life, her ‘media career’ and her recent illness have been so well-documented that you feel that even as a fully-registered medical practitioner, there is little you can add.

© News of the World

Maybe just one comment. As someone who has had a close family member treated for endometrial cancer recently (similar, but not identical to the treatment for cervical cancer which has spread to the uterus), can I just say how well Jade looks in this video clip. She must be wearing false eyelashes and pencilled-in eyebrows, because they fall out at the same time your hair does when you are having chemotherapy.

Tags: Celebrity health news by theanatomiser
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According to various reports, the post mortem (autopsy) on the son of John Travolta has shown that his death was due to a seizure – by which is meant an epileptic seizure.

As far as this writer is aware, there are never any post mortem signs of epilepsy itself. It is after all electrical discharge in the brain – not something you can see after the event! Perhaps what the pathologist (medical examiner) means is that no other pathology was found, leaving a seizure as the only other conclusion. The sixteen-year-old’s body has now apparently been cremated.

The web has been alive with speculation surrounding this family tragedy. Not least because of the reports of autism, and the fact that Scientologists do not believe in autism. It has also been reported that Jett Travolta suffered from Kawasaki syndrome. This quite rare condition usually occurs in very young children, and is hardly ever life-threatening. It can occasionally lead to heart problems (particularly aneurysms of the coronary arteries) but is not associated with epilepsy later in life.

Tags: Celebrity health news by theanatomiser
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Yes, he has apparently had a tumour in his pancreas, but it’s not the same thing as ‘pancreatic cancer’. Let me try to explain.

Apple CEO Steve Jobs

The boss of Apple has had a particularly nasty, and very rare condition called a neuroendocrine tumour. They often crop up in the pancreas, but can also grow inside other organs.

[Read more →]

Tags: Celebrity health news by theanatomiser
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Paul Gascoigne

On the recent documentary aired on the Channel 4 – ‘Saving Gazza’, Paul Gascoigne’s 12 year old son was asked what he thought was wrong with his dad. “Everything” was the reply. The lad should definitely consider clinical psychology as a career. This link to a previous documentary – ‘Surviving Gazza‘ – has some video clips. These were filmed prior to the documentary ‘Saving Gazza.’
Whether or not Paul Gascoigne (the former England footballer) has a formal psychiatric diagnosis is an arguable point, but probably not one worth arguing. However you label the poor guy, he appears to be very ill indeed and possibly beyond recovery.
[Read more →]

Tags: Celebrity health news, Sport by theanatomiser
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OK, if you haven’t seen ‘Seven Pounds’ yet then grab your box of tissues and head out. Certainly don’t read the rest of this post, because it contains spoilers. [Read more →]

Tags: Celebrity health news, Film by theanatomiser
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What can you say? People like Humph are supposed to live for ever. He was the Prince of Irreverent Humour; completely irreplaceable. I expect a minute’s silence at a certain Underground station and people to throw flowers in front of the funeral cortege as it wends its solemn way down the Mall. The Queen must surely make an announcement. [Read more →]

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The film director and screenwriter Anthony Minghella has died unexpectedly, a week after undergoing surgery for what sounds like tonsillar cancer.

Ever since I found out about its existence, tonsillar cancer has been top of my list of things-I-don’t-want-to-get. It’s a horrible disease, just like other forms of cancer. But this one is particularly nasty as it tends to present late, and the treatment is particularly aggressive and often disfiguring. [Read more →]

Tags: Celebrity health news by theanatomiser
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The British newsreader Carol Barnes has sadly died, from ‘a stroke’, and the actress Samantha Morton has just revealed a stroke as the reason for her 18 month disappearance from Hollywood.

In English medical vernacular, the term ’stroke’ is usually used to describe a catastrophic Cerebro-Vascular Accident (CVA). In more common English, that means something really nasty and unpredicted (catastrophic and accidental) in your brain (cerebral) to do with your blood vessels or blood supply (vascular). [Read more →]

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