Video Story
Watch VideoBriargate couple fighting Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease
Story By: Susan Davies
Source: KOAA
A Briargate couple is facing the biggest challenge of their lives. It's a fight they can not win. Mike Holland has Creutzfeld-Jakob Disease. It's extremely rare and very cruel. The disease attacks the brain and usually kills the victim within months. Mike and Cheryl Holland know they're running out of time, but they have questions and want answers.
Cheryl Holland explains, "I can not save my husband. But where he got it, that is a concern for me."
Cheryl says Mike started complaining of terrible headaches late last year - a few weeks after undergoing major heart surgery. Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease or CJD is not easy to diagnose. Only an autopsy can provide complete certainty. Her biggest fear is that Mike "caught" the disease as a result of his surgery. And she's troubled that there seems to be more concern about how Mike's body and brain will be handled after his death, than how he got sick in the first place. His doctor has given him just one to three months to live.
He struggles with pain, balance and loss of memory. As his disease progresses, he'll lose his eyesight and ability to speak. The couple says their faith and church keep them going. They hope to celebrate their thirty-second wedding anniversary next month.CJD affects one in a million people. There are roughly 200 cases in the United States each year.
