Ticking Time Bomb (Literally): Man who Murdered Pastor Was Profiled by Paper Last Summer as Lyme Disease Victim

Terry Joe Sedlacek, the 27-year-old Illinois man who reportedly shot and killed an Illinois pastor yesterday, was the subject of a major piece in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch last August 6 which covered his startling bout with Lyme disease which had led to years of treatment and mental illness (along with lesions on his brain).

It has kicked off speculation about whether severe Lyme disease can lead to insane violence -- following the murderous attack on a woman by a trained chimp last month who also had been bitten and suffered from Lyme.

The remarkable Post-Dispatch story from last August also reveals that fundraisers had been held on Sedlacek's behalf. Sedlacek could barely speak due to the ravages of the disease, which no one had IDed for several years. No cause for his attack on the pastor has yet emerged.

The Belleville News-Democrat, a local paper in lllinois, today published a PDF of the fundraiser for Sedlacek last July and a list of "mental impacts" of severe Lyme disease today: "Extreme cases have been reported in the scientific literature of panic attacks, disorientation, hallucinations, extreme agitation, impulsive violence, manic, or obsessive behavior, paranoia, schizophrenic-like states, dementia and eating disorders. Several patients have committed suicide."

On the other hand: "Lyme disease doesn't cause people to shoot people," Dr. Eugene Shapiro, a Lyme disease expert at Yale University, told the Associated Press.

Sedlacek, an avid hunter, carried two pistols during the shooting and police found more at his home.

The gunman is now in the hospital after cutting himself with a knife in the incident. A parishioner he knifed is also still hospitalized.

Before being properly diagnosed, he nearly expired in 2003. A few years later he was put into a coma to treat him. His family publicized his plight last year attempting to draw attention to the need for proper diagnosis in areas where Lyme Disease is not common.

The article last August noted:

These days, Sedlacek, now 26 and living in Troy, Ill., with Abernathy, has difficulty speaking. He's got lesions on his brain. He's taking several drugs, including anti-seizure medication.

"He takes enough medicine at night to knock a cow out, but he only sleeps two or three hours a night," Abernathy said...

The funds raised are helping pay for treatment in Florida in a hyperbaric chamber that has helped others with his symptoms. He's now about halfway through the month of treatments, and his mother said in an e-mail that he is doing well and doctors have been able to reduce some of his medications.

Greg Mitchell's new book is "Why Obama Won." He is editor of Editor & Publisher.

Comments

[ABXNOMORE]

Greg Mitchell, I thank you so very much on this article. I encourage you to research more on this epidemic illness and the politics involved and see how the IDSA guidelines are causing the suffering of millions of people. The information is so easily to access and flies in the fact of the restrictive IDSA guidelines that is keeping so many who suffer from getting a proper diagnosis and treatment. These guidelines are destroying lives, causing deaths and someone needs to expose this.

The American public deserves to be educated and know how to protect themselves from getting this illness and how to find the few doctors that will help them and have the right to prompt help from an educated medical community. Lyme disease and its associated co-infections are present in all 50 states, not just Connecticut.

Please see the documentary "under your skin". It tells the story of needless suffering caused by science and medicine playing politics with out lives.

You can read right here over 1200 stories of lives that have been destroyed because of the restrictive guidelines prescribed by the IDSA and how long it took for these sick people to get help and how many were misdiagnosed for years due to ignorance regarding this illness promoted by the IDSA guidelines. http://www.oprah.com/community/threads/101903?numResults=50&filter=newest Please expose this horrible epidemic for what it is.

[Arielman]

It is a growing problem on Long Island, one photographer for the National Geographic mag died so too a young boy here in the Bronx, NY.

One of five tick borne illnesses, my neighbor, later a science teacher, had Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever which laid him up for a year. His father thought it was from the last cattle drive that used to stop nearby overnite near the "Whitey's Saddlery" there in Suffolk county that has a steer on its official seal and a book of cattle brands that stretches back to the 1600s. It's also where the "ranch system" started. Its first murder case ever on Shelter Island, on the east end of Long Island and is attributed to "Lyme disease" in the defense.

There is report from autopsy, the subject volunteered his for study, found that thought "cured" a large number of spirochetes were found in heart muscle where they were "hidden" from normal testing as used. It was almost like the scary "heartworm" that sometimes attacks pets, by the way thanks to a courageous woman who collected "Lyme disease" symptoms from animal vets went on to show that it is also present in California.

It's thought that it's vector had come from sheep on cleared off Nantucket Island, MA.The sheep landed in Connecticut are thought to have been the carriers. An experiment with tiny wasps natural predators of ticks was conducted in the 1930s on "No-mans Island" and reducted the tick population by 50%.

[PatA]

I've had Rocky Mountain Spotted Tick Fever twice and my struggles to regain my health were nothing compared to Lyme Disease victims. I had brain lesions, deep depressions, insomnia and weight loss.
I had to diagnose myself the second time and I begged a young ER doctor for the right dosage of the antibiotic. He didn't give me the high dosage and that led to all of my subsequent problems. A neurologist in a small town saved me.

Doctors should check for Lyme disease asap when a patient presents with the typical Lyme disease
symptoms.

[LymeinGA]

Isn't it strange that everyone accepts that King Henry VIII suffered from
insanity caused by the syphilis spirochete in his later years but that people
are so skeptical about the possibility that the Lyme spirochete can cause
insanity and violence?

Dr. Brian Fallon of Columbia University has researched and documented the
neuropsychiatric aspects of Lyme disease for many, many years.
I wonder why they never bothered to interview him? check out all the
articles...either google him or go to lymenet.org and search neuropsychiatric lyme...many articles come up...most are very old. Why isn't the media aware of this by now??? Because they keep interviewing the corrupt people in the Lyme world (watch Under Our Skin and read Pamela Weintraub's "Cure Unknown") .

Come on, Huffington! Watch the movie and do a story on what's REALLY happening! (Check out Oprah's community blog for more!)

[ChelseaC]

I'm a regular here on the Huff Po. I also have late diagnosed Lyme Disease and co-infections, it's an awful illness.There is so much to be learned about this illness.

Please see www.ilads.org for more information about Lyme Disease.

[ABXNOMORE]

Well said, The public needs to learn what really is going on in the medical community when it comes to this illness and how it can and will affect them one day.

Shapiro is no Lyme expert. He has his own self interests at heart. Investing in patents that harm people and consulting for insurance companies to deny benefits to seriously sick patients.

He is responsible for the needless suffering of millions of Americans across the country.

[tanah]

I knew the lyme expert's name sounded too familiar.....
Don't you know about the bitter war between IDSA and lyme victims like myself, my 3 children ages 3, 6 and 7 and husband?
He spins the evidence due to his "conflict of interest" connections with insurance companies. He is shameless and you use him as a "lyme expert"? Give me a break!
The new IDSA panel EXCLUDE lyme experts as lyme experts who are the real lyme literate docs who actually save lives but lose their liscenses in the process. He is not a lyme expert. He doesn't understand the funda,mental truth abt' the stealth bug. Read below-go to link. You want a lyme expert to "comment" on your article ask Joseph Burrascano or an ILADS member. Those are the REAL lyme experts I don't care how many Md's someone has...

The "Lyme Expert" quoted in the article is no-one else than "Eugene Shapiro, MD, a Yale pediatrician and one of the 14 authors of the contested IDSA Lyme diagnosis and treatment guidelines". It was disappointing that he "failed to mention that he supplements his university salary by reviewing Lyme patient disabilities claims for Metropolitan Life. He has also testified against two Lyme-literate physicians who treat chronic Lyme patients with long-term antibiotics" .
Source: http://underourskin.com/blog/?p=61

-tanah

[ABXNOMORE]

This is, indeed true, and you can read about it right here

http://www.ct.gov/AG/cwp/view.asp?a=2795&q=414284

Shapiro states that "Lyme disease doesn't cause people to shoot people," Dr. Eugene Shapiro, a Lyme disease expert at Yale University, told the Associated Press. Yale is known to be one of the worse places to go for help with this disease. Any search will turn up an abundance of evidence that advanced lyme disease does indeed cause psychiatric problems. The folks at Yale and the IDSA have stood in the way of millions of people getting a proper diagnosis and treatment causing them to needlessly suffer and even die.

It's criminal behavior in the guise of medical help. That is why Connecticut's Attorney General, a tick endemic state, has finally challenged them.

There is no shortage of information on the subject:

http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/abstract/151/11/1571

http://www.mentalhealthandillness.com/Articles/MicrobesAndMentalIllness.htm

http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/abstract/159/2/297?ijkey=42c85f4bc0ed8516f2076bb884ae427f6739f375&keytype2=tf_ipsecsha

Search and you will find many more articles on the subject. It is a subject not to be taken lightly. The ISDA needs to be stopped for barring sick individuals from a prompt diagnosis and treatment. Their guidelines have harmed to many for too many years.

[cotterpin]

Its important to note that the "Experts" put forth by the Infectious Disease Society of America (IDSA) were brought up on RICO charges by the CT. Attorney General Blumenthal for dismissing important scientific data and having compromising financial ties to pharmaceutical and insurance companies. The IDSA panel was forced to be disbanned and restructured with an ethicist.
THIS IS THE FIRST TIME A MEDICAL ASSOCIATION HAS EVER BEEN BROUGHT UP ON CRIMINAL CHARGES!
Their goal is to dismiss the long term effects of Lyme and once the disease has progressed to the point of extraordinary symptoms (Parkinsons, MS, Ahlzheimers, Psychosis, etc.) then Lyme diagnosis is dismissed and the patient is put on life long "Life Style" drugs that do nothing to cure the disease but treat symptoms only - and the patient is now a life long customer of the drug company. With no cure in sight.
Many thousands of lyme victims have suffered without proper treatment because of these IDSA Monsters.
(One study showed 1/3 of patients in a mental institution tested positive for Lyme. How many more are needlessly suffering in lock down institutions?)

[ABXNOMORE]

Good point but it does not negate the problems with people getting treatment and a diagnosis with this illness.

They are two separate issues, both equally valid.

He was not a member of that church, we don't even know if he was religious but we do know he was very ill with the disease, including brain lesions due to the advanced stage of the illness and was struggling for care.

Fundraisers were held to raise money to get him medical care.

[WSAY]

While the claims of Lyme Disease may well be valid, lets not forget that there were almost certainly other factors here. In fact, it is most likely that Lyme Disease had nothing to do with it. Why are people always so hesitant to look at the real issues? Is it really a coincidence that so many death are related to religion? The sooner we look at THIS issue, the better. 3000 people were killed on September 11 due to religion. I seriously doubt any of the pilots in that matter had Lyme Disease,

[PatchyWarrior]

Your post makes no sense, IMHO. The motive's still unknown - surely if his actions were caused by Lyme it would be better to address that as the 'root cause'. I'm no fan of religion, btw, but you can't just hang the problems on the church (in this case) by default.

[ChelseaC]

Of course other factors/variables might be involved.
At this juncture, it is premature to state the "cause(s)" of the killing in this particular situation.

However, generally speaking, Lyme Disease can indeed cause violence/p­sychiatric illness in some individuals infected with this disease.This illness invades the brain and central nervous system.
Just to give readers a little taste of what Lyme Disease is like, I have the following symptoms:
headaches
joint pain/swelling
sore throat
fevers
hair loss
pain in spine, brain, stomach, lungs, and sometimes my feet hurts so bad I can't walk
electric "shocks" in my spine and brain
bone crushing fatigue
insomnia
anxiety
neuropathy in brain and armpits
body jerks
constant *viral* feeling
I feel sick 24/7.
There are no good or bad days, only bad and worse days.

I have been this way for five years, only recently diagnosed.
The treatment for late stage Lyme disease is brutal. I have not been following
my doctor's recomendations and I know if I don't get back on the medication
soon, I will only get worse.
It take courage to go through treatment--courage I need to muster.

Prior to being ill, I was attending my first semester of
law school, now I am too sick to work or attend school.
I hope to be well in a year or so and start my life over again.

[ABXNOMORE]

Here we have yet another tragedy. The author is right. Lyme Disease and its associated co-infections is a "ticking time bomb". The public has been misinformed and duped by the medical establishment regarding this illness.

It's sad when the experts make statements to the media that are out and out wrong and smack in the face of scientific evidence. There is an excellent documentary that EVERYONE should see., "Under
Your Skin". http://www.underourskin.com/

While most lyme patients do not go around shooting people, when it is left untreated or not caught in time it can cause symptoms of a psychiatric nature but Lyme patients are sick not crazy.

Here is a list of symptoms one can suffer from when contracting this illness http://www.lyme.org/otherdis/ld_symptoms.html

EVERY ONE PLEASE EDUCATE YOURSELVES ABOUT THIS ILLNESS, It is not an easily curable illness as the members of the IDSA claim , who write the guidelines that your doctors use to determine if you have the illness, but it will ruin your life and you will never be the same.

This is the organization of doctors and researchers who understand this illness and take it seriously
http://ilads.org/ EDUCATE yourselves. As a long time sufferer of this illness, I assure you that you want to do everything possible to never contract this illness.

[WSAY]

Religion causes psychiatric symptoms and it's well documented in religious literature. I also find it peculiar that the religious don't ask themselves why God didn't stop this, and that those who are so pro-gun are killed by guns.

[pineapple2]

Lyme causes psychiatric symptoms and it's well documented in scientific literature. Other infectious diseases that cause psychiatric episodes when the brain is attacked include syphilus, Toxoplasma gondii, strept, and other infections that cause inflammation in the brain.

Scientists have long known that infections cause behavioral conditions. History shows when penicillins were first used to treat syphilis, a spirochete like Lyme , thousands of cured patients thought schizophrenics were released from mental institutions. Now scientists have more evidence that infections play a far bigger roll in mental illness than previously thought.

Highly publicized in 2005, Florida football player Wyatt Sexton was found disoriented, doing push ups in the streets and proclaiming he was God. Police officers arrested him thinking he was under the influence of drugs, but he was found to have a serious case of late stage neuropsychiatric Lyme and was hospitalized for treatment. Physicians treating late stage Lyme know hallucinations, paranoia, compulsion, rage, anxiety, depression, cognitive impairment, and suicide are not uncommon with late stage Lyme.

Unfortunately physicians, including the self-proclaimed "experts", are denying the impact infectious diseases have permanently on the brain. While Shapiro, Nadelman, Wormser, deny that chronic Lyme disease exists, victims continue to suffer.

What caused this man suffering from Lyme to take someone's life may never be known. It is a sad story. I hope people begin to take Lyme disease seriously. Research must be done to develop accurate tests and effective treatment protocols to help those that have drug resistant strains of Borrelia.

[blaze0811]

Lyme Disease was just part of the tragedy here. This young man's Lyme had a helper - a trigger, if you will...

Mobile Phone Emissions Increase Worm Fertility:
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn1889-mobile-phone-emissions-increase-worm-fertility.html

Electro Hypersensitivity - Talking to Your Doctor
http://weepinitiative.org/talkingtoyourdoctor.pdf

Bioinitiative Report:
http://www.bioinitiative.org/report/index.htm

My hunch is that this young man was living close to a cell phone tower or antenna, using a cell phone or cordless phone, or perhaps exposure to wi-fi signals caused him to snap. I pray that his family looks into this possibility, because I do not think he was at fault for what he did.

The electromagnetic and microwave radiation emitted by mobile phone masts has been proven to cause changes in the brain and in behavior, causing agitation, interfering with sleep, and hindering the functioning of the immune system. Perhaps there was even a cell phone tower near the church where this occurred?

www.antennasearch.com

Please see the Bioinitiative Report above.

[Jezreel]

How sad. How awfully sad for everyone involved. Perhaps the one positive thing to come out of this tragedy is that it highlights the need for greater access to healthcare. No American should ever have to endure a physical loss of such magnitude without access to the best health facilities in this nation.

This story is just too sad.

[UhOhItsMagic]

This is a very tragic story.

There is so much more to Lyme disease than is being reported, and it is only extreme cases like this that get the spotlight.

There is a new, rather explosive documentary about Lyme coming out this spring, "Under Our Skin", exposing the Infectious Diseases Society of America's campaign of denial of the severity of Lyme and the extent of the epidemic.

Film trailer and 13 minute excerpt are listed under "Watch" at UnderOurSkin dot com.

Eugene Shapiro, the Yale MD quoted in some articles about this shooting, is a leader of this IDSA Lyme-denial group and is in the film.

Also, current effort to get Oprah to do a show on "Under Our Skin" (Dr. Oz has already featured it on radio) and over a thousand Lyme sufferers have shared their stories here:
oprah . com / community / threads / 101903

Also, a book: "Cure Unknown: Inside the Lyme Epidemic" by Pam Weintraub, senior editor at Discover.

Sorry if this is scary to people (and you may well be scared after seeing this film/excerpt), but I feel compelled to spread the word so others don't go through what I've gone through with this disease. It's here and it's bad.
Peace.

[UhOhItsMagic]

Ah - just realized I can post direct links here.

Lyme disease documentary - watch trailer/excerpts:
www.underourskin.com

Patient stories asking Oprah for a show on Lyme
http://www.oprah.com/community/thread/101903

[CTPatriot]

Your response as well as that by Pineapplez are excellent, informative, and appreciated. I'd like to add that Eugene Shapiro is a pediatric Lyme disease "expert" at Yale, one of the worst institutions in the country when it comes to denial and cover-up of chronic Lyme disease. Shapiro is NOT a psychiatrist nor is he an expert on the psychiatric effects of Lyme disease, so it is unfortunate that the AP chose to seek him out as their voice from the medical community.

They should have sought out some one like Brian Fallon of Columbia Univ., a neuropsychiatrist, and arguably the world's foremost expert on the psychiatric effects of Lyme disease. He has published a wealth of research on that topic and spent decades studying it.

To those wishing for an overview on this topic and Fallon's work, I would suggest reading "The Neuropsychiatric Manifestations of Lyme Borreliosis":
http://library.lymenet.org/domino/file.nsf/bbf2f15334c1f28585256613000317cc/87e8dfed931381b7852567c70012001f?OpenDocument

I personally experienced panic attacks, paranoia, and bouts of rage along with many frightening and debilitating physical symptoms as a part of my experience with Lyme disease, and it wasn't until I was treated with months of oral antibiotics followed by 9 weeks of IV antibiotics that the psych symptoms vanished never to return.

(cont'd)

[iowabettyg]

Greg,

I've had chronic lyme disease for 39 years; 34.5 years MISDIAGNOSED by 40-50 doctors!

So I have severe NEURO lyme but I'm able to control my lyme temper sometimes called, "lyme rage".

I hope the truth is found as to what caused Terry to kill this innocent pastor causing a tremendous loss to his family, friends, and congregation!

My sympathies to the pastor's family/congregation on your deep loss.

Chronic lyme and co-infections exist in all 50 states, and you can check this out using this CDC link showing those FEW diagnosed meeting CDC's strict criteria eliminating the 2 main protein bands which are LYME!

So hundreds of thousands of people are NOT diagnosed since they have positive western blot igm and igg blood tests but NOT enough to meet CDC's requirements, and lyme should be your primary drs. "clinical" diagnosis!

1980 – Jan. 2008 reported LYME disease for all 50 states broken down by years!

http://www.lyme.org/resources/1980-cumulative.htm

LYME SYMPTOMS CHECK LIST:

http://flash.lymenet.org/scripts/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=1;t=021063#000000

Yes, Dr. Brian Fallon would be the perfect person to followup on this since he's the dept. head of the new LYME RESEARCH CENTER at Columbia University, NYC.

Again, please follow-up on this, and present the "rest of the story" as our beloved, late Paul Harvey would say! Thank you. :)

IowaBettyG, lyme activist

[CTPatriot]

There are documented cases of dementia caused by Lyme disease, including the case of one man who was originally diagnosed with and treated for Lyme disease, but after receiving the accepted (by IDSA) curative amount of antibiotics, which improved his health, was taken off meds, slipped into dementia and was institutionalized, never again to be treated for Lyme disease. His health declined and he died within 2 years. An autopsy revealed the bacteria that causes Lyme disease inside of his brain. Here is a link to that case study:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez?Db=pubmed&Cmd=ShowDetailView&TermToSearch=7580195&ordinalpos=31&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_ResultsPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum

For anyone wishing to learn more about the nasty politics impacting Lyme disease research, I blogged about this in 2007 in an article titled, "Attack of the Chronic Lyme Denialists":
http://www.myleftnutmeg.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=8493

While it is still unknown as to what role, if any, Lyme disease played in Sedlacek's violent behavior, the possibility of a connection to his illness cannot be dismissed out of hand.