Terrible tragedy for Alzheimer's suffering mother and family

Apr 12 2010

By Candy Lashkari

In an bizarre situation a 31 year old Australian woman called Rebecca Doig, who gave birth to a healthy girl last week does not even remember giving birth to the child. The little girl called Emily has never been taken into her mother’s arms and it seems never will.

Rebecca suffers from a rare form of Alzheimer’s disease which has affected her memory. She is unable to care for herself and the husband Scott Doig is now faced with the daunting task of caring for both his wife and infant daughter, Emily.

"Emily is perfect ... she's a very beautiful little thing and very healthy," he said. "The road ahead is going to be extremely difficult — there's no two ways about it. We take every day as it comes because there is not a lot that we can do about it.”

Emily was tested soon after birth and does not carry the defective PSEN1 gene which caused her mother’s condition. Her mother had been and outgoing and intelligent women till she began to suffer from the disease last year. The symptoms initially were as mild has having forgotten where she had placed a handbag, but progressed rapidly to a more severe state.

She was unable to hold on to a job due to the deterioration of her memory. Her frontal, parietal and temporal lobes have all shrunk. She's lost her recent memory and emotions  -  inspiration, joy, happiness. She is unable to even hold her baby properly and cannot remember giving birth to her at all.

Alzheimer’s in younger people in their thirties and forties is very rare and only 5% of the cases get triggered by a gene mutation. Mrs Doig is the first woman to give birth to a baby in such an advanced stage of the disease. Despite her memory loss she has a complication free pregnancy and gave birth via a C-Section to Emily who weighed 6lb 3oz.

“She’s like an 80-year-old going on five years old,” Scott said. “She went from being an independent, outgoing and bright young woman to someone who doesn’t recognise her own newborn daughter. My goal is to find more home care for her, so she can see out her final days in comfortable and familiar surroundings.'

Rebecca Doig has been refused disability pension and there is considerable financial strain on the family. A fundraiser has been organized by Hornsby Council for the family next weekend. Scott Doig talks of the disease as a great tragedy which the family has to learn to cope with.