WOMAN WHO KILLED SELF SAID SHE FEARED SPOUSE.Byline: Associated Press Associated Press: see news agency. Associated Press (AP) Cooperative news agency, the oldest and largest in the U.S. and long the largest in the world. A nurse suffering from chronic fatigue syndrome chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), collection of persistent, debilitating symptoms, the most notable of which is severe, lasting fatigue. In other countries it is known variously as myalgic encephalomyelitis, chronic fatigue and immune dysfunction syndrome, and who committed suicide with Dr. Jack Kevorkian's help complained to police about three weeks ago that her husband had manhandled her and that she was afraid of him. Judith Curren spoke with officers at the couple's stately colonial home in Pembroke, Mass., as they arrested Dr. Franklin Curren on a charge of domestic assault and battery, Plymouth County District Attorney Michael Sullivan said Friday. Curren, 57, a staff psychiatrist at Pembroke Psychiatric Hospital psychiatric hospital n. A hospital for the care and treatment of patients affected with acute or chronic mental illness. Also called mental hospital. , was at his wife's side, along with Kevorkian and another psychiatrist, when she committed suicide Thursday. A message left Friday evening with Kevorkian's attorney, Geoffrey Fieger, was not immediately returned. Earlier, Fieger said Judith Curren, 42, had suffered from chronic fatigue syndrome that was destroying her body like AIDS. ``This is not the virus that causes AIDS, but it produced exactly the same type of immune deficiency immune deficiency n. See immunodeficiency. that AIDS produced,'' Fieger said. ``In this particular case, chronic fatigue syndrome may be caused by a virus, it may be caused by a bacteria, they don't know Don't know (DK, DKed) "Don't know the trade." A Street expression used whenever one party lacks knowledge of a trade or receives conflicting instructions from the other party. ,'' he said. ``But in a certain small percentage of cases, it is progressive, it is fatal, inevitably, because she was suffering from destruction of systems that could never regenerate.'' But a specialist disputed the assertion the disease is progressive and said people don't generally die of chronic fatigue syndrome. Dr. Charles Lapp, a North Carolina North Carolina, state in the SE United States. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean (E), South Carolina and Georgia (S), Tennessee (W), and Virginia (N). Facts and Figures Area, 52,586 sq mi (136,198 sq km). Pop. internist internist /in·tern·ist/ (in-ter´nist) a specialist in internal medicine. in·ter·nist n. A physician specializing in internal medicine. , said that while the constant pain can be nearly unbearable, medicine helps. ``This is not an illness that anyone dies from,'' Lapp said from Raleigh. ``It is not generally considered to be a progressive illness, nor is it considered to be a fatal illness.'' Judith Curren, a registered nurse and mother of two daughters, ages 9 and 7, was the 35th person to commit suicide with Kevorkian's help. The Oakland County Medical Examiner's office said the autopsy results were not immediately available, and Fieger would not say where or how Judith Curren died. The Currens have an unlisted telephone number. Oakland County Prosecutor Richard Thompson, who lost his re-election bid after twice failing to convict Kevorkian on assisted suicide assisted suicide: see euthanasia. charges, said Friday that his office was looking into the couple's background. ``I can just tell you that we are aware of that report and our office has been in touch'' with prosecutors in Massachusetts,'' Thompson said. |
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