No Prior Existing Conditions but Dead Anyway

[indigo girl]

http://www.todaystmj4.com/news/local/48007842.html

Who would think that a normally healthy woman would die so swiftly from influenza in June?

Could you ever have imagined such a thing? No wonder her family and friends are in shock.

So why did it happen?

Barbara Davis, 48, was healthy just a week ago. She had dinner with her mother Josephine last Friday night. But just hours after that dinner, Josephine got a phone call.

"My friend, he called me and told me Barbara was real sick. And I said, "Well, she wasn't sick when I left, so what's the matter?" Josephine Davis said.

Barbara told her mother that she was ok. But the next day, things got worse. She had trouble breathing, and she was shaking. She could barely walk into the hospital.

"She tried to talk to people, but she just couldn't talk," Josephine Davis said.

Doctors treated her for two days, but they couldn't save her. They believe she died from swine flu.

"They've never seen nothing like that, what she had. That infection just went through her body, attacking her kidney, her lungs, her liver. Everything," said Josephine Davis.

The Milwaukee Health Department confirmed on Friday a Milwaukee adult with no underlying medical conditions died from swine flu, though they haven't confirmed Barbara Davis was that victim.

Barbara's family knows all too well how serious swine flu can be.

"Everybody is just in a shock. The people that I talked to today, they are frightened. Because it happened all of a sudden," Josephine Davis said.

More than 1,800 people have caught swine flu in Milwaukee alone. The city's Health Department is stressing that if you are mildly ill with flu symptoms, you should call your doctor. If your symptoms are serious or if you have mild symptoms that are getting worse, you should see a doctor right away.

http://www.wisn.com/health/19751526/detail.html

The Milwaukee County Medical Examiner said 48-year-old Barbara Davis died Thursday in the ICU after being diagnosed with the flu strain.

The health department said, unlike Milwaukee's first swine flu victim, Davis did not have any "underlying medical conditions" that would have put her at a greater risk for the disease.

http://www.flutrackers.com/forum/showpost.php?p=248304&postcount=7

This post was written by Dr. Gratten Woodsen, MD commenting over at flutrackers on this unfortunate woman's case.

The decedent is described as having fulminate multi-organ failure that developed rapidly resulting in death 48 hours after onset and despite intensive medical therapy in an ICU including all the bells and whistles.

The attending physicians told the mother that they had never seen anything like this before and I believe them. So did she. No one has seen anything like this since 1918. In 1918 many doctors said the say thing after dealing with their first cases of Spanish Flu and for them too it was a great surprise at least until those that didn't die from the virus themselves had seen it so many times that it was no longer unique.

There are numerous descriptions from the 1918 pandemic that match the one above but no where else in medical history do we find anything remotely similar. This is why the doctors in Milwaukee were so shocked by what they saw.

How many other North American victims had similar pathology? Why have the autopsy and clinical findings from the deaths in Mexico, the US and Canada been suppressed?

I know from press reports that there have been other US deaths where multi-organ failure was present. Is this common among those who have died of Swine Flu or rare? Are the findings similar to those seen in 1918 or not?

(hat tip flutrackers/skatman)

[oramar]

Whitfield County, Georgia

http://www.newschannel9.com/news/div-985169-local-moorer.html

(hat tip flutrackers/shiloh)

I don't know what to say about this business about "don't call the doctor". There has been deaths in persons that were given Tamiflu but it is looking like the death rate in those that got it is really small.(I think this is yet to be proven but just what I am reading seems to indicate that early results are leaning that way) That 14 year old that died whose father was on TV crying, he said her doctor wouldn't give it to her quoting the CDC recommendations. No one knows for sure but she may have still been here if she had gotten it EARLY. Am I understanding what happened correctly?

[indigo girl]

I don't know what to say about this business about "don't call the doctor". There has been deaths in persons that were given Tamiflu but it is looking like the death rate in those that got it is really small.(I think this is yet to be proven but just what I am reading seems to indicate that early results are leaning that way) That 14 year old that died whose father was on TV crying, he said her doctor wouldn't give it to her quoting the CDC recommendations. No one knows for sure but she may have still been here if she had gotten it EARLY. Am I understanding what happened correctly?

I think that you are correct that it could have made a difference. But, I also know that some have died despite Tamiflu.

Here are both parents in an interview about their child not receiving Tamiflu. It is very difficult to watch this. I feel so very sorry for them. This man is her stepdad, and evidently loved her as if she was his own.

http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=5352442n&tag=api

[indigo girl]

Mariposa County, Arizona

http://www.kpho.com/news/21164911/detail.html

A Valley teenager with no underlying medical conditions died from H1N1 flu in early September, the Maricopa County Department of

The victim was from Maricopa County, said Jeanene Fowler of the county health department.

Because of privacy laws, not much is known about the teen, such as where he or she went to school.

(hat tip pfi/homebody)

[CrunchRN, ADN, RN]

And now we have a teen from Corpus Christi who was healthy and died from 'brain swelling" related to H1N1.

[indigo girl]

Baltimore, Maryland

http://www.baltimoresun.com/health/bal-md.hs.flu01oct01,0,6464987.story

She was 14 years old.

Destinee Alicia Parker was an aspiring artist who loved animals, Lil Wayne and scary movies. She and her two sisters were known as the "Parker Posse" at Montebello Elementary/Middle School. And although she was healthy, she died of swine flu Tuesday night.

She became the state's first youth with no apparent underlying medical condition to succumb to the virus. The death comes a week before the state expects to begin vaccinating students and other people at high risk of contracting the H1N1 virus.

"She was a wonderful child, always smiling, always cracking jokes," said her stepmother, Deirdre Parker, who spoke yesterday as her husband, James Parker, sat next to her, hiding his tears behind sunglasses and at times holding his wife's hand for support.

[indigo girl]

Cedar Rapids, Iowa

http://www.kgan.com/shared/newsroom/top_stories/videos/kgan_vid_1146.shtml

The family of 31-year-old Shawn Michels tells us the Cedar Rrapids man passed away Friday at St. Lukes Hospital.

Doctors say he died from H1N1.

The parents of Shawn Michels still don't fully understand how their son died from the H1N1 virus.

They describe him as a healthy young man, just 31 years old.

But it only took a week in the hospital for his diagnosis to go from bronchitis to pneumonia to H1N1.

It's still unclear how Shawn Michels got the virus or why it took his life.

Shawn's family says they want to get their facts straight about what exactly happened to Shawn before they speak publicly.

They will be meeting with doctors later this week.

(hat tip pfi/KimTT)

[indigo girl]

Louisville, Kentucky

http://www.wave3.com/Global/story.asp?S=11248868#

Metro health officials have confirmed that a 41-year-old woman died from the H1N1 virus on Sept. 21.

Metro Public Health and Wellness Director Dr. Adewale Troutman said the woman died from lung disease, likely pneumonia, related to the H1N1 virus.

"There were no apparent underlying medical complications in this patient," Troutman said. "Of course, our thoughts and prayers go out to the family for the tragic loss of this young woman."

He said her death doesn't fit into the pattern of the disease so far.

"We've seen six months to 24 years is kind of the target age range," Troutman said. "Those who have died so far, for the most part, have had underlying diseases of one kind or another - respiratory diseases, asthma or what have you. In this case, as we understand it, this is a 41-year-old, which makes her outside of the normal range of expected problems."

(hat tip pfi/bktl)

UPDATE

http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20091004/NEWS01/910040342/Louisville+Woman+who+died+of+swine+flu+identified

Sheila Brooks, 41, of the 1700 block of Gaulbert Avenue, died at University Hospital's emergency room, said Eddie Robinson, a deputy coroner for Jefferson County. Officials with the Louisville Metro Department of Public Health and Wellness had said the death occurred Sept. 21.

Robinson said Sunday that an autopsy was performed by state medical examiner Barbara Weakley-Jones on Sept. 22 and test results confirmed the death was caused by the H1N1 virus, also known as swine flu.

Health department officials said Friday that the victim in this case had no underlying health conditions.

[CrunchRN, ADN, RN]

We had another death over the weekend. 25 years old. She was morbidly obese, but her doctor did not give her Tamiflu. Leaves behind a young child.

[indigo girl]

We had another death over the weekend. 25 years old. She was morbidly obese, but her doctor did not give her Tamiflu. Leaves behind a young child.

Two deaths in my facility last week, that I am aware of though there may be more that I don't know about.

One was s/p c-section and on ECMO to no avail. This is very, very sad. She leaves behind her newborn,her toddler and her heart sick husband. She was a beautiful, and perfectly healthy young woman before getting the flu.

The other is a patient well known to me personally as she was a very frequent flyer to my psych unit. We had discharged her just two days before this last, final admission. This time she went to ICU instead of psych. Though she was tough to care for at times, she was a sweet kid, just 30 years old, and I feel terrible about how she died. Not surprisingly her rapid test was negative. And, her PCR was also negative so be advised because I am reading that this happens more often than you would like to think. As with these other cases, they found that she had novel H1N1 at autopsy. She had so many other health problems (morbid obesity, DM, reactive airway) that the swine flu virus was able to overwhelm her immune system.

[indigo girl]

Hennepin County, Minnesota

Hennepin County, Minnesota

http://www.twincities.com/ci_13493548?nclick_check=1

The memories bring laughter and tears to D.J. Schilling, whose youngest son, Nathan, died Sept. 24 in an ambulance outside the family home. Schilling said he and his oldest son had recovered from flu infections during that week, but Nathan struggled.

"Nathan just never seemed to" get better, his father said.

State health officials announced Monday that a child died from H1N1-related complications and that his death was one of only two fatalities in Minnesota that didn't involve a pre-existing health problem.

The Hennepin County medical examiner confirmed that Nathan was the victim. His cause of death was listed as myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart that typically is caused by influenza or other infections.

Nathan stopped breathing, and paramedics tried unsuccessfully to revive him.

(hat tip pfi/pixie)

[indigo girl]

Adams County, Colorado

He did have some sinus problems but these are not listed amongst the risky conditions that could lead to a severe outcome. However, there is anecdotal information that may or may not be credible that many who think that they have just have only a sinus infection have both flu and sinusitis.

http://www.denverpost.com/news/ci_13489939

A 25-year-old Adams County man with no known underlying medical conditions has died of the H1N1 flu, the Adams County coroner's office said today.

The man lived in Commerce City and died Sept. 29, according to James Hibbard, the Adams County coroner.

The man had sought medical treatment for an upper respiratory illness and was treated. At that time, the man didn't exhibit or complain of any flulike conditions, the coroner's office said.

Hibbard said the man did not have a high fever, a cough, was not vomiting and didn't experience diarrhea, which are generally signs of the flu.

The coroner said the man did have a previous history of some sinus problems and was treated by his doctor based on his previous medical history.

(hat tip pfi/homebody)

[indigo girl]

Georgetown, Kentucky

http://www.georgetownnews.com/articles/2009/10/13/news/doc4ad4df2ef1a57326257982.txt

The 39-year-old man, Matthew Finger of Georgetown, had no underlying health conditions and died at his sister's home, Rebecca Finger, sister of the deceased, said.

Finger died Saturday, Oct. 3, making him the first to die in an "uncontrolled setting," Goble said.

He is the only male to die of the H1N1 virus out of the six Kentucky deaths.

The H1N1 confirmation did not come until today and Goble said the man had not been under a doctor's care.

Finger had only complained of a headache the night before his death, Rebecca Finger told the News-Graphic.

"He wasn't overweight. He was just healthy that way," she said.

(hat tip pfi/homebody)