HCW Fatalities

indigo girl · Sep 15, 2009

Knoxville, Tennessee

http://www.volunteertv.com/home/headlines/59389212.html

I do not think that this reporter is very knowledgeable about swine flu or influenza in general. She admits that this nurse died of complications secondary to H1N1, but she does not seem to understand the difference between seasonal flu and swine flu.

Unlike seasonal influenza, swine flu has a much greater ability to penetrate deep lung tissue, and can cause overwhelming lung damage. This tremendous damage is why a percentage of these cases end up needing ECMO. It is not at all surprising that patients are developing co-infections with other organisms as well. They have been severely immuno-compromised by the the flu.

The portrayal of swine flu s/s is not entirely accurate. Many swine flu cases are afebrile. We know that 30% of the Mexican cases including some that were hospitalized were afebrile, and in Chile it climbed to 50%. This has been well documented. The GI symptoms are occurring in both adults and children, and are very common as well. Co-infections with MRSA, strep, and other organisms have been occuring all along which increases the chances of a fatal outcome. These patients are also at risk for PE particularly if they are obese. Cytokine storm is being reported as well as multi-organ failure.

The description given of the patient starting to improve, with fever going away only to become critical is a classic description of what happens with this flu when the victim is in trouble. Here is a link describing this well: http://scienceblogs.com/effectmeasure/2009/06/swine_flu_warning_signs_that_s.php

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/knoxnews/obituary.aspx?page=notice&pid=132821358

The family of a Seymour nurse who worked in Knoxville says complications from H1N1 led to her death.
Tina Vick, 43, was a wife and mother of two.
She was healthy up until she came home from work with a fever of 102 degrees about two weeks ago.
Today, her mom told Volunteer TV that after four days with a fever, she went to UT Medical Center but she never recovered.
Tina Vick was in the hospital for a week and five days.
Her mom says she also got double pneumonia and was on a ventilator.
Toward the end, she seemed to improve-- her fever went away, but then she suddenly got worse than before.
Vick died on Saturday.
Her abrupt death has been hard on everyone close to her.
Her co-workers at Select Specialty Hospital at St. Mary's say they're shocked.
Vick's mom says that Tuesday is Tina's older son's birthday. He turns 15.
The younger son turns 12 next month.
Tina Vick's death is not a confirmed case of H1N1, swine flu, and the double pneumonia is believed to have played a role in her death as well.
Symptoms for both swine flu and the seasonal flu are the same.
They include fever, headaches, extreme tiredness, a dry cough, sore throat, runny or stuffy nose, and muscle aches.
Stomach symptoms can occur in children.

(hat tip flutrackers/shiloh)

indigo girl · Sep 16, 2009

South Africa

http://www.thepost.co.za/?fSectionId=&fArticleId=nw20090915064438265C726398

A KwaZulu-Natal doctor has become the first medical practitioner to die of the H1N1 virus, the SABC reported.
Dr Irshad Moola of KwaDukuza, north of Durban, died at a private hospital after a brief illness.
His father Farouk Moola said his son had flu-like symptoms and was admitted to hospital with breathing difficulties.
The health department has confirmed that his death was as a result of the virus.

(hat tip pfi/monotreme)

indigo girl · Sep 16, 2009

Argentina

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125288935212607589.html

The children's hospital in San Miguel de Tucumán, Argentina, handled lots of tough cases during a recent swine-flu outbreak, but none more wrenching than the sudden deaths of two of its own nurses in July.
One of the dead was 37-year-old Débora Molina, a single mother of three who worked two nursing jobs, but was still so poor that colleagues had to pitch in to buy her coffin. Now, hundreds of angry health professionals in the city have launched a series of demonstrations and work stoppages, seeking a safer workplace and better salaries.
Even as the H1N1 flu wave that killed more than 500 Argentines subsides, Argentina's health workers are campaigning to improve deficient work conditions exposed by the virus.
The 21st of November Group, a nurses activist organization, has tallied seven nurses who died of symptoms consistent with swine flu, and scores of others who fell ill. It says hospitals delayed implementing safety procedures and distributing protective respirator masks, especially when the outbreak was peaking in June and July. Government health officials said workers are exaggerating the toll, and that some of the recently deceased nurses have tested negative for H1N1.
Health workers have rallied twice in front of the national Health Ministry, and also held a nationwide protest. On Monday, the Argentine Senate is set to hold hearings on a bill introduced in July to improve conditions and pay for nurses, many of whom earn between $300 and $500 a month, and often must take second jobs to make ends meet.
Overall, swine flu has claimed more lives in Argentina than anywhere but Brazil and the U.S. As of mid-May, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had received 48 reports of H1N1 among U.S. health workers, some of whom it said weren't making adequate use of protective gloves, gowns and surgical masks. At least one U.S. medical worker -- a 51-year-old California cancer nurse -- has died of swine flu.
In Argentina, a handful of doctors and auxiliary workers also died during the epidemic, activists and unions say. Analysts say Argentina's flu-response problems grew out of an overly decentralized hospital system largely controlled by provinces and municipalities. Lacking a strong central authority, Argentine health-care workers were "soldiers going to war without a general," said Dr. Jorge Yabkowski, president of the Federation of Health Professionals union.
"No one thought of sending respirator masks out to the countryside," said Mabel Pages, a nurse in a clinic in the small town of Alta Italia. Ms. Pages's 43-year old daughter, Maria Fabiana Donadio, also a nurse, came down with the flu after working without a respirator mask, and died in July. Ms. Pages said Ms. Donadio had battled lupus, an immune system disorder that left her vulnerable to the flu.
At Buenos Aires's Juan P. Garrahan Pediatric Hospital, administrators initially issued respirators only to doctors or nurses in intensive care, but not to other workers, such as laboratory technician Carlos Taboada, according to the hospital union. Mr. Taboada contracted the flu in June while extracting blood samples, and recovered after a couple of weeks of rest.
The union said that after Garrahan auxiliary workers began refusing to do their jobs without respirators, the hospital began distributing them more widely, albeit only one mask per worker, per week. The hospital union says that partly because of the delay in getting masks out, 175 of its 2,800 workers were being treated for flu symptoms at the peak of the outbreak in July.
Dr. Jorge Lemus, the health minister of the city of Buenos Aires, said there was only a brief period when respirator masks were in short supply, and only in certain hospitals. But interviews with workers at several hospitals suggest the problem was widespread.
Alejandra Ledesma, a nurse at Buenos Aires's Maria Ferrer Respiratory Rehabilitation Hospital, said she was reluctant to continue working without a respirator mask one day in late June, so nursing supervisor Patricia Avedaño gave her own to Ms. Ledesma. The next day, the 44-year-old Ms. Avedaño came down with fever, according to her medical log, and was administered the antiviral drug used to treat swine flu. Ms. Avedaño died three days later. Dr. Lemus said Ms. Avedaño tested negative for the flu virus. Ms. Avedaño's sister, Lorena, said she believes the city doesn't want to acknowledge swine flu as the cause of death.
In some places, the flu turned health workers against one another. On July 1, in the city of Concordia, Dr. Nestor Hirschfeld was diagnosed with swine flu and went to the local hospital for treatment. But Dr. Hirschfeld, the hospital's only pediatric surgeon, was then pressed to perform emergency surgery on a badly injured three-year-old girl.
About a dozen nurses and surgical assistants refused to accompany Dr. Hirschfeld to the operating room for fear of catching the flu from him. Dr. Hirschfeld, wearing a respirator mask, carried out the operation with a hastily assembled backup team.
The girl died from her injuries a few days later, not of swine flu. The hospital has filed an administrative and criminal complaint against the workers who declined to work with Dr. Hirschfeld. The workers' union is defending them, saying that Dr. Hirschfeld was exposing them to danger.

(hat tip pfi/lauraB)

indigo girl · Sep 19, 2009

Knoxville, Tennessee

http://www.wate.com/Global/story.asp?S=11158006

A Knox County school nurse has died and her family says they believe it's due to complications of H1N1 flu. However, the state Department of Health has not confirmed the cause yet.
Sondra Cash, 59, died on Thursday.
If her death is confirmed later as flu-related, it would be the first such reported death in Knox County.
Cash was hired by Knox County Schools in September 2007. This was her first year at Bearden Middle School. Before that, she worked at South-Doyle Middle School.
Cash moved to Bearden Middle this school year, where she continued her commitment to students.
"She didn't make much money, but she would give her last dollar for someone to get to eat. She supplied the food for our diabetics. She was just incredible. She loved them. They were her kids," West says.
West says Cash was a diabetic herself and had some other health problems. She started having flu-like symptoms a few weeks ago and had gone to the doctor twice.

"She was told that she had the swine flu, is what she told me," West says.
West remembers the last time she spoke to her friend on the phone.
"She sounded bad. I thought she maybe had pneumonia, because it sounded like it was all in her chest," West says. "The next day she was gone. It about killed me. She was the best thing, other than my family. I love her."
West doesn't know where Cash got the flu, but has this message for parents and the public.
Bearden Middle School sent home a letter to students about Cash's death.
Principal Sonja Winstead wrote, "I know there are rumors in the community concerning the cause of her passing. While personal medical information is protected under law and not something that can be released, at this time we are not aware of anything that would cause us undue concern for the health and safety of your children or our employees."
The school will remain open.

(hat tip pfi/key)

indigo girl · Sep 21, 2009

Russia

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20090920/hl_afp/healthflurussia_20090920205546

A doctor recently arrived from Bulgaria died after contracting swine flu, becoming Russia's first fatality from the A(H1N1) virus, a Russian medical sciences' academy official said on Sunday.
"The day before she died, her tests were handed over to our group, and we immediately diagnosed it as swine flu," Dmitry Lvov was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency.
"We could not take any measures because she died the very next day," Lvov said, adding that the death happened "in early September."

(hat tip pfi/pixie)

indigo girl · Sep 29, 2009

Knoxville, Tennessee

http://www.volunteertv.com/home/headlines/62405642.html

I posted on this case earlier, and swine flu is now confirmed.

Tina Henson Vick, 43, who was a nurse at Select Specialty Hospital at Saint Mary's died, and her family believed it was because of H1N1.
Now that the CDC has confirmed it, they wanted to get their story out.
Tina Vick's family wants everyone to know that the H1N1 virus moves quickly and it can affect anyone.
"No one thought she was going to die," Ronnie Dunn, Tina's uncle said.
From a back-row pew at his church Monday, Dunn said he felt comfortable for the first time, talking about his niece's death.
When doctors handed the paperwork to Tina's family, they took notes: verified by the CDC.
Influenza H1n1 positive.
"From the day she was born, she was smiling and she never quit smiling. And she just had the sweetest personality in the world," Dunn commented as he looked at old pictures.
Dunn was the only family member up for talking.
And he says they all think it is important they get Tina's story out.
"Tina Michelle Henson Vick is the first confirmed death in Knox County with the H1N1 swine flu," Dunn repeated.
Vick's death, he says, is noteworthy because she was healthy and she was a nurse.
"I think she was exposed to someone while she was at work because there were seven or eight other nurses who went home with flu-like symptoms that weekend," Dunn told Volunteer TV.
But Tina Henson Vick was the only one who wasn't able to overcome it.
"Maybe ten people can be exposed to this and nine will be sick for three or four days and recover, and one person may die from it," Dunn said.
Vick was ill for three days at home before she decided to go to the hospital. From the flu, she developed double pneumonia. Fifteen days after getting sick, she died.

indigo girl · Oct 6, 2009

Huntington, West Virginia

http://www.wsaz.com/huntington/headlines/63182167.html

How many of our colleagues have a health condition that could put them at risk, I wonder. Probably quite a few...

She was a sister, a daughter, a nurse and a bride-to-be.
That's what the family of the latest victim of swine flu wants the public to know about their loved one. Amy Scott was just 37 when she died Thursday afternoon. Her sister, Sarah Gillespie, said Amy was a home health care nurse for Pro Nursing. She cared for children and adults, but her sister says she enjoyed working with children most.
"She treated her patients as if they were her own family," Sarah said. "That's one of the many things that was so special about her."
She says Amy started feeling sick about a week ago. She went to a local health clinic twice for treatment. Then, on Sunday, her symptoms intensified and she ended up at St. Mary's Medical Center where she tested positive for the flu.
According to her sister, Amy went home to recover, but 48 hours later, she was gasping for air and both of her lungs were full of fluid. Tuesday evening, she was back in the hospital in the intensive care unit on a ventilator. She died Thursday afternoon after suffering a heart attack and multiple organ failure.
Amy was engaged and due to be married later this year. She did suffer from diabetes and high blood pressure.
"I don't want her to be remembered as a the second victim in Huntington to die of the swine flu," Sarah said. "I want people to know she was a generous, kind and loving person who meant the world to us. We're devastated by this sudden loss and deeply grieving."

(hat tip pif/get a grippe)

indigo girl · Oct 20, 2009

NIOSH Asks Public to Report Health Worker H1N1 Cases

http://ohsonline.com/articles/2009/10/16/niosh-asks-public-to-report-health-worker-h1n1-cases.aspx

Isn't it kind of strange that NIOSH is asking the public to report these cases? I know that the CDC is tracking this information, but we may not hear about these deaths unless families go to the media.

NIOSH posted a request Oct. 16 asking the public to report cases where health workers become seriously ill or die from 2009 H1N1 infection. News media reports indicate H1N1 has killed at least four nurses, the agency said, but it added, "Efforts to gain a fuller understanding of the prevalence of serious H1N1 illness and fatalities among nurses, as well as other healthcare personnel, have been limited due to a lack of occupational data in existing healthcare surveillance systems."
Shortcomings in the U.S. disease surveillance system were a concern raised the same day in a Council on Foreign Relations/Science Magazine panel discussion featuring three flu experts.
"More efforts are needed in order to fully appreciate the prevalence of severe H1N1 illness among healthcare workers," NIOSH said. The agency said it is working with partners to collect more information about H1N1 deaths and serious illness among health care personnel. "To augment these efforts, NIOSH is encouraging members of the public to provide us with any information they have regarding cases of serious 2009 H1N1 illness, hospitalization, or fatality among healthcare personnel," the request states. "Such information can be provided by emailing to the following NIOSH email address: [email protected]. Please provide contact information so that a follow-up email or phone call can be made to obtain more detailed information. Please be aware that the information you provide in your email may be subject to public release."

(hat tip flutrackers/BostonRN)

oramar · Oct 20, 2009

NIOSH Asks Public to Report Health Worker H1N1 Cases
http://ohsonline.com/articles/2009/10/16/niosh-asks-public-to-report-health-worker-h1n1-cases.aspx
Isn't it kind of strange that NIOSH is asking the public to report these cases? I know that the CDC is tracking this information, but we may not hear about these deaths unless families go to the media.
(hat tip flutrackers/BostonRN)

I will be interested in seeing how disablity and death caused by work related exposure will be handled. If the past is any indication of the future management will do everything they can to wiggle out of paying. If a nurse is forced as a condition of employment to take the vaccine and then comes down with GBS will they accept it as a work related disability? If a nurse works in a place where mask and other protective equipment is in short supply comes down with the flu will they pay disablity? Soldiers, police and firefighters injured in line of duty get treated like heros. Nurses get a kick in the head.

indigo girl · Nov 24, 2009

Florida Nurse Dies in Colorado

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/floridatoday/obituary.aspx?n=pamela-lelle&pid=136325695

Pamela Ann Lelle - Mims - Pamela Ann (Lucas) Lelle, 56, passed away Friday, November 20, 2009 in Loveland, Colorado from complications with H1N1 Flu. In her final moments Pamela was comforted with the presence of her daughter Michelle, and her loving husband Harold...She graduated with a nursing degree from Brevard Community College in 1975. She worked over 34 years as an R.N. in many different places and capacities throughout her career but most of her career was spent at Parrish Medical Center and its affiliates in Titusville, FL... Only two weeks prior to her passing she completed training and testing and became a Certified Legal Nursing Consultant.

(hat tip pfi/spirit in the wind 2)

indigo girl · Nov 25, 2009

Russia - Pediatrician 1st swine flu death in Omsk

http://www.flutrackers.com/forum/showpost.php?p=322679&postcount=1

This info is from a translation over at flutrackers.

In Omsk, from the "Swine" influenza a pediatrician died, who had previously examined the number of pupils grammar school 115, where an outbreak of highly influenza A/H1N1.
"November 21, 2009 in the municipal health care institutions Omsk city clinical hospital № 1 named. Kabanova recorded the first death in a patient with laboratory-confirmed diagnosis of highly flu "- says the official statement of the Ministry of Health of the Omsk region.

indigo girl · Jan 21, 2010

Phoenix, Arizona

http://www.ncnewspress.com/newsnow/x255187211/Amanda-K-Schreiner

Amanda K. Schreiner, 26, died in Phoenix, Ariz., Nov. 14, 2009 of what is believed to be H1N1.
She grew up in Hastings. She attended Zion Lutheran School and graduated from Hastings Senior High School before attending Central Community College and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and graduating from Grand Canyon University Phoenix with a bachelor's degree in Health and Nursing. She had worked at St. Joseph's Hospital in Phoenix.
She donated her organs to science.

(hat tip pfi/pixie)