Two Tragic Deaths from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS)

Chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) is not a disease that one ordinarily associates with death but there is growing evidence that CFS places one at an increased risk of early death. The National CFIDS Foundation has a long memorial page reporting on the deaths of CFS patients. A noted physician, Dr. Jason, recently stated that death due to CFS may be more common than we think;

“We have a paper coming out in the next couple of months, where we have actually looked at causes of death for people who have died of chronic fatigue syndrome. What we have found is that individuals seem to die of three causes, heart disease, cancer and suicide… (and) we found that those individuals who died, actually died significantly younger, about ten years younger of those causes, than would be expected based on national mortality data.”

Jason Breckenridge’s and Casey Fero’s deaths bring a special poignancy to this question. Both were young men and neither appeared to be at death’s door.  Jason had made considerable progress in his health over the past year. The week before he died he was well enough to travel from Syracuse to New York City to visit his doctor and return full of enthusiasm. Casey Fero had completed two years of community college, had a summer job and had enrolled in college shortly before his death from a heart attack. Both were, despite their illnesses, enthusiastic young men one might have been thought  would have been the last to suffer such a fate. When I first learned of Jason’s death my first thought was ‘Not HIM!’.  It was, and still is, hard to believe.

A Goodbye To Jason Breckenridge

A Tribute to Casey Fero by Mary Schweitzer