The Curious Case of Clark Brothers
The Curious Case of Clark’s Brothers by Stuart Greig for RIZE USA Productions Channel 4, is about the tragic story of two brothers Michael, 42, and Matthew, 39 year olds of United Kingdom, who have developed an age-reversing disease, which leaves them behaving like young children. They both had jobs before and were able to have normal relationships until their mannerisms became more and more childlike… just like the film the Curious Case of Benjamin Button that starred Brad Pitt.
Their form of the disease mirrors the plot of the film, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, based on the F. Scott Fitzgerald novel, in which an old man constantly gets younger, rather than growing old, the brothers physical appearance is not changing.
“'Benjamin Button’ -- that’s fantasy,” said the brothers’ mother, Christine Clark. “This is real.”
“I used to wish my sons were small again, I got my wish.” She said wiping tears in her eyes.
Because of their distressing condition, the brothers are forced to move back home with their parents. They cannot take care of themselves anymore. Michael is now estimated to have a mental age of 10 and is said to giggle all the times. While factory worker Matthew, whose 19-year-old daughter Lydia is expecting a baby, behaves much like a toddler. After their behavior started to change, the brothers were eventually diagnosed with terminal leukodystrophy.
According to American Journal of Neuroradiology (2002), leukodystrophy is a progressive disease of myelin sheath in which a genetically determined metabolic defect results in confluent destruction, or failed development, of central white matter. Most leukodystrophies are autosomal recessive or X-linked recessive with onset in early childhood. Dominantly inherited leukodystrophies with onset in adulthood are rare (http://www.ajnr.org/content/27/4/904.full#xref-ref-1-1).
Furthermore the research states that adult-onset autosomal dominant leukodystrophy (ADLD; OMIM accession number 169500) was first
Their form of the disease mirrors the plot of the film, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, based on the F. Scott Fitzgerald novel, in which an old man constantly gets younger, rather than growing old, the brothers physical appearance is not changing.
“'Benjamin Button’ -- that’s fantasy,” said the brothers’ mother, Christine Clark. “This is real.”
“I used to wish my sons were small again, I got my wish.” She said wiping tears in her eyes.
Because of their distressing condition, the brothers are forced to move back home with their parents. They cannot take care of themselves anymore. Michael is now estimated to have a mental age of 10 and is said to giggle all the times. While factory worker Matthew, whose 19-year-old daughter Lydia is expecting a baby, behaves much like a toddler. After their behavior started to change, the brothers were eventually diagnosed with terminal leukodystrophy.
According to American Journal of Neuroradiology (2002), leukodystrophy is a progressive disease of myelin sheath in which a genetically determined metabolic defect results in confluent destruction, or failed development, of central white matter. Most leukodystrophies are autosomal recessive or X-linked recessive with onset in early childhood. Dominantly inherited leukodystrophies with onset in adulthood are rare (http://www.ajnr.org/content/27/4/904.full#xref-ref-1-1).
Furthermore the research states that adult-onset autosomal dominant leukodystrophy (ADLD; OMIM accession number 169500) was first