Two of the deaths, a brain trauma and a case of rheumatoid arthritis that worsened after treatment was stopped, are clearly not linked to the drug.

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He said although householders who injure a burglar may not eventually be prosecuted they often faced "months of trauma" while a case was decided.

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Bob Paxman, a former SAS soldier who founded the PTSD charity Talking 2 Minds, said people reacted in different ways to trauma and Fitzsimons' case was an extreme one.

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In a 1999 article in the peer-reviewed journal Anesthesiology, Gail A. Van Norman, a professor of anesthesiology at the University of Washington, reported a case in which a 30-year-old patient with severe head trauma began breathing spontaneously after being declared brain dead.

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It is absolutely not the case that people who are "cool, calm and collected" at the time of the trauma are setting themselves up for later trouble.

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