Blog 55: Postscript
Every now and again, someone will ask: “But what did Bill die of?”
And then they will add, thoughtfully: “They don’t die of dementia, do they?”
Well, in fact, they do, and a section of Bill’s DEATH CERTIFICATE looks like this:
|
MEDICAL Cause of death Duration of illness
|
a) severe vascular dementia b) cerebral vascular accident a) years b) years |
I don’t know whether any Death Certificates are written that state that Dementia is the sole cause of death. Perhaps death by dementia is always accompanied by a shutting down of the cardiovascular system.
But I do know that, according to Alzheimer’s Australia (www.fightdementia.org.au) dementia is the third leading cause of death in Australia and that, each week, there are more than 1,700 new cases diagnosed in this country alone….approximately one person every six minutes.
It Is my hope that Bill’s story might help those affected by the disease (more than 332,000 Australians) and those impacted by it (approximately 1.2 million people involved in their care).
I know that the writing of these blogs has certainly helped me come to grips with what happened to Bill as he took that journey that he had to take. It helped me too, to come to terms with his death.
Thank you for reading.
