No Prior Existing Conditions but Dead Anyway - Page 24

I work in a very small rural hospital in Illinois. As far as I know we've had no cases of H1N1 except one. We did have a 40 something obese male with a hx of resp. problems. He was admitted with Asthma exacerbation. He was a frequent flyer, and actually looked better than usual on this admission. Less than 36 hrs later he was in the ICU, on a ventilator, too critical to fly out. He was stabilized and flown to a larger hospital where he died. The other hospital tested for H1N1 and he was positive. We are a very small hospital, don't routinely see many critical young pts. I have been a nurse for 15 yrs and have NEVER seen someone young go down that fast.

Kim Lange's son was still coherent when the doctor said it was time to put him on a ventilator. He was as stoic as he could be -- a 23-year-old who had never been sick. But the look of terror in his eyes as he looked up from the hospital bed tore her heart.

"He said, 'Worst- case scenario, huh, Mom?' '' Lange recalled. "And I fell apart.''

On Monday he went to the doctor, who told him he had pneumonia and sent him home with pills. On Tuesday, when his temperature hit 104 degrees, his mom took him to the emergency room, where he got intravenous fluids and more pills. On Wednesday he went back to the doctor, who called an ambulance to take him from the clinic in Forest Lake to United Hospital in St. Paul. An ambulance? Kim Lange was shocked.

On Oct. 18, Donald Franklin Dyer, 16 years old, student at Sandwich High School, became the first person in DeKalb County infected with the H1N1 virus to die. But before he did, he spent 58 days in the hospital, hooked up to machines that helped him breathe and taking medications to help him fight off pneumonia.

"He told us there was nothing more he could do," Michael said. "He had never once said that before. I always had a feeling Donald would get through this, but when he said that, I knew."

Donald Dyer died later that day, just a few days after his 16th birthday. The DeKalb County Health Department, while not confirming Dyer's identity, said there were no underlying conditions in his death, which was related to an H1N1 infection.

“He just said, ‘I’m not feeling very well,’” she remembers. Three days later, he had a fever of 103 and went to a doctor, who advised him to take Motrin and Tylenol and rest.

She never dreamed that her husband would die from H1N1.

“He didn’t smoke. He was healthy,” she said. “My husband was 44 years old. I didn’t think he had anything to worry about.”

On Sunday, Oct. 25, the 38-year-old Preble County sheriff’s captain staggered into the living room complaining that he couldn’t breathe.
“Do you want me to call a squad?” she asked.

He nodded, she said, “But I think he knew he was going to die.” Thornsberry was flown to Indiana University Hospital in Indianapolis, where he was diagnosed with viral and bacterial pneumonia and the H1N1 virus — after four negative tests for the swine flu.

It seemed unreal that her husband of 17 years — who seemed afflicted by nothing worse than a bad cold — could be near death.
“Here he’s a big, strong, healthy man, 38 years old, lying there helpless,” she recalled.

Thornsberry died Nov. 6...

A 19-year-old woman from Haines who was living in Juneau had swine flu when she died Nov. 21, the state Department of Health and Social Services reported today.

She had not been hospitalized.

The cause of death has not been determined, said department spokesman Greg Wilkinson. There is no evidence that she had any chronic health conditions, he said.

Nearly 1,000 New Mexicans have been admitted to hospitals this year for treatment related to the H1N1 flu, according to the New Mexico Department of Health which recorded one flu-related death during the last week.

The man who died was 50 and did not have any underlying medical conditions that might have contributed to the death. Swine flu has now been cited in 43 deaths in the state this year.

The H1N1 virus nearly killed a young Omaha dad. Doug Jorgensen is just 29-years-old and has no pre-existing medical conditions, yet he was struck down hard by Swine Flu.

Doug, a healthy young man, was just driving along and his heart stopped beating. Doctors said Doug's body was filled with infection from H1N1 and double pneumonia. They told his family to say their goodbyes. "I stroked Doug's arm and I looked into his eyes and all I said was I love you son. I thought this is probably the last time I'm going to see Doug alive ."

His family calls it a miracle, Doug is still with them today. It's been very long road to recovery and the journey is far from over. Today, we visited Doug at Quality Living, Inc., the rehab center where he now lives. He's painting a frame to give to his little girl. But the truth is Doug can't remember her birth just a year ago. The swine flu wiped out Doug's memory. It's also forced him to relearn how to walk again.

Keith Worthington is lying in a pediatric intensive-care unit bed, breathing with the aid of a machine and battling for his life.

The diagnosis turned out to be swine flu, the H1N1 virus, compounded by pneumonia and a bacterial infection. His lungs filled with fluids and suffered damage.

Another complication: The strain of bacteria is resistant to antibiotics. His condition is critical and unstable.

Although autistic, Keith had no underlying health conditions, such as asthma, before the flu struck. That meant he wasn’t in the
first group to be targeted for the vaccine, which was unavailable before he got sick, his mother said.

Now, however, he has a lot of healing to do. His doctors aren’t certain whether damage to his lungs is permanent. It has been difficult to wean him from the ventilator, Sam-Agudu said.