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Casey Kasem's health declining, daughter given conservatorship

by Reuters
Saturday, 7 June 2014 02:03 GMT

LOS ANGELES, June 6 (Reuters) - The daughter of ailing radio personality Casey Kasem was granted conservatorship over his health care on Friday, as a family representative said the deejay "won't be with us much longer."

Kerri Kasem will oversee the care given to her 82-year-old father said Danny Deraney, a representative for the deejay's three children from his first marriage.

The deejay's health care and visitation rights has been at the center of a legal tussle between his children from his first marriage - Kerri, Julie and Mike - and his second wife, Jean Kasem, with whom he has one child, Liberty.

Kasem was admitted to a Washington state hospital earlier this week in critical condition, suffering from an infected bed sore. Deraney said the deejay's health was declining on Friday.

"If he opens his eyes, I want my Dad just once to see everyone standing around him, putting our differences aside and let him know how much he is loved by everyone, including Jean and Liberty," Kerri Kasem said in a statement.

Kasem, most famous for his weekly top 40 countdown radio show and as the voice of Shaggy on the "Scooby-Doo" cartoons, suffers from Lewy body disease, a form of dementia with symptoms similar to Parkinson's disease and hallucinations.

The legal battle between the deejay's family members escalated earlier in May when Kerri Kasem and her sister filed court papers saying that they did not know his whereabouts.

Several days later, sheriff's deputies in Kitsap County located him and Jean Kasem there. Further proceedings in the case are scheduled for late June.

(Reporting by Piya Sinha-Roy; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

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