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Rather than retyping the whole thing, I would ask you to read my post #40. I am being accused of making an accusation that I am not, in fact, making. I KNOW that CJD is not the first (or the hundredth) thing that a physician- even a Neurologist or an Infectious Disease specialist- might consider when presented with these symptoms in a young person. If I were on a jury, and a physician was being sued for malpractice for missing this specific diagnosis, I would NEVER vote to award damages.

BUT, if the physician had brushed the symptoms off, and done no reasonable work-up, I'd award the family millions.

. . . and done no reasonable work-up . . .

I understand what you're saying, but what's reasonable? Unfortunately, cost must be taken into consideration. Is it reasonable to do perhaps thousands of dollars of testing, chasing diagnoses that are so rare we know, a priori, they are not likely to come back positive?

Doctors, insurance companies, even the Army is under constant pressure to reduce costs. I hate it myself, but it's a necessary balancing act. If it were just this one guy, I'd say spend a million. But it's not just this one guy; it's millions of people with millions of symptoms that don't fit.