I was just watching the July 9th,, 2010 episode of Dr. G. She was doing an autopsy on a 45 year old woman that died with no apparent reason. The lady had been depressed, her life spiraled out of control, loss of weight, rarely spoke, etc since her mugging when she was beat on the head 5 years before. She found the lady had pneumonia, but when she looked at the brain she saw severe atrophy of the frontal lobe. She called a neurology doctor in for help. She also found the lady had an adult diaper on that had been duct taped together. With the FTD diagnosis all her personality and behavior changes all made sense. What family had written off as a reaction to the muggy was actually the disease ravaging through her brain. They explained the pneumonia was caused due to the FTD - her gag reflex no longer worked right which caused the bacteria from her mouth to lodge in her bronchial.
When she called the brother, whom the sister had been living with, to inform of her findings he was shocked. Everyone thought she just suffered from depression. She also told him it can be a genetic defect but there is no test to find out if he will develop the condition.
It is on discovery health. Dr G is the head medical examiner in district 9 of Orange County there in Florida. I love the show. As soon as she said the frontal lobe was atrophied I knew what the diagnosis would be. yes, the pneumonia killed her, but the underlying cause was the FTD.
FYI - the episode repeats 7/10 at 6pm and 7/14 @ 2pm (probably EDT but not sure)
I love Dr G., and find her so beautiful. I wanted make an appointment to see her, but she said that she does not accept "walk-in appointments", and I need to dress in a body bag....
I have watched Dr G for a long time and had my DH watch one time when the subject was a woman who did not take her insulin...she described the events when glucose gets out of control. Dr G is well worth watching, one learns a lot.