The death of a 5-year-old Nashville boy who had the H1N1 virus has put parents on alert to look for the slightest signs that their child might be sick.
Max Gomez, who was a student at Henry Maxwell Elementary School in Antioch, became ill Friday and was admitted to Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt on Monday. He died the same day. The state testing lab confirmed Wednesday that the boy had the H1N1 virus.
An initial autopsy did not indicate other health problems, though results will not be final for another 60 days.
On Halloween, Johnson found herself severely short of breath. Her oxygen level was at about 70 percent of what it should have been. Chest X-rays showed her lungs full of fluid.
By the next morning, Johnson was breathing with an oxygen mask in Methodist's critical-care unit, where the worst H1N1 patients come. Soon she needed a ventilator, a feeding tube, an IV in her neck. Doctors said Johnson's chances at survival were a tossup, and they constantly monitored her baby.
On Friday afternoon, Johnson was discharged. Her baby is due in January. Her doctor told her to stay home a week before returning to her job as a first-grade teacher in Newton. But Johnson wasn't thinking of that. She was thinking of finally going home and seeing her dog, a puggle named Harlie.
The November 6 death of Conner Woodruff, a 12 year old student of Robert Gray Elementary School, has been linked to the H1N1 (swine) flu virus. County public health officials were notified of the positive test result Friday afternoon.
"Conner died from a very uncommon complication of the flu in which the heart muscle becomes inflamed," reports Dr. John Bausher, the Grays Harbor County Health Officer. "This is a rare event that is associated with many different kinds of viral illness such as measles, chickenpox, mumps, and influenza (flu). When it happens, it is heartbreaking."
One minute, Russell Woodruff was helping his son Conner get dressed, and the next minute the boy collapsed backward in his bed, his heart stopped.
"It was like being struck by lightning," Russell said. "It was just like a light went out. From that time on, it was unbelievable that this could be happening."
The last culture tested showed that Chris had H1N1-on top of raging pneumonia. He was also diagnosed with acute respiratory distress syndrome.
Chris was the first person in Nebraska given the experimental flu drug Peramivir IV within hours of President Barack Obama's approving an emergency release by the FDA.
After weeks with his life hanging in the balance, Chris was finally well enough a week ago to be removed from the ventilator and the induced coma. Since then, he has been able to talk to his parents and begin therapy to recover.
A Houston teen who died from swine flu last week was buried on Sunday, just a month before his 19th birthday.
Raymond Plotkin, a Westbury High School graduate, died in Albuquerque, New Mexico where he was attending college.
The University of New Mexico freshman came down with flu-like symptoms about two weeks ago. He eventually went to the hospital, but doctors couldn't save him and he died on November 11.
Swine flu is suspected in the death of a Westmoreland County girl at Children's Hospital in Pittsburgh.
The news of 4-year-old Mariah Conrad's death comes the same day that a funeral was held for a 4-month-old who died at Children's Hospital over the weekend.
Mariah, of Crabtree, died on Tuesday at the hospital, officials said.
A Topsail High School student who died earlier this month experienced fatal complications from the H1N1 virus, Pender County health officials said Tuesday.
State public health lab officials tested a specimen from the girl, who died Nov. 6, and confirmed she had the virus, said Shirley Steele, clinic nursing supervisor for Pender County's health department.
School officials in Pelham said an student in the district has died from complications from H1N1.
Officials from the district and the Department of Health and Human Services told News 9 that the victim was a student in the district, but they would not say the age or grade of the child. They said the child had been ill for some time.
Justin White, 9, of Lynnville, died from complications from swine flu Sunday at Vanderbilt Children's Hospital in Nashville.
He underwent surgery Oct. 24 in preparation for dialysis, but while recovering from the surgery he contracted swine flu. Justin White spent two weeks on a ventilator before succumbing Sunday.
Justin White suffered from Cerebral Palsy all his life, never learning to walk or talk. Despite this, he was a third grader at Southside Elementary School in Pulaski.
Wayne County health officials this afternoon confirmed the death of a juvenile from H1N1.
Valerie Edell, a supervising public health nurse, said that the child had not been vaccinated against H1N1 and that the child was not hospitalized. She declined to give the child's age or any other details, citing privacy regulations.
indigo girl
5,173 Posts
Newton, Illinois
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-ap-ia-exchange-fluhitsf,0,6601133,full.story
This pregnant teacher survived.
(hat tip pfi/monotreme]