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)

[hypocaffeinemia, BSN, RN]

Just lovely. Patient last week was type A influenza positive (wasn't differentiated at that point, but c'mon--it's July!). Don't particularly feel like dying a rapid death from swine flu this year. Now you've got me all paranoid!

[lamazeteacher]

Just lovely. Patient last week was type A influenza positive (wasn't differentiated at that point, but c'mon--it's July!). Don't particularly feel like dying a rapid death from swine flu this year. Now you've got me all paranoid!

I hope he was placed in an isolation room and resp./droplet techniques used!

Keeping yourself well hydrated, get adequate sleep and eating healthy really has preventative effects. All people with flu-like s/s are supposed to be treated "as if" they have A/H1N1 and reported to the Health Department by the IC Nurse after being informed about the patient.

Your comment about feeling paranoid, in fear of getting it yourself, is a common reaction called self preservation. :roll

[RedWeasel, RN]

My Dr started me last Wed on Amoxicillin for my sinus infection that started Sun. I told him my throat felt like strep as well-but it wasn't till I got home and had started the amoxicillin and took a nap that I woke up and saw the white patches in my throat. They are still there and it is Sun AM. My throat doesn't feel like I am swallowing needles as much but this has kicked me in the teeth. I am tired constantly and the cough is brutal. I had a pneumovax shot in 98 so maybe that has helped me but ya....this is scary. People need to be prepared. I don't know that I had it but without a family to provide you with popsicles and mucinex and tylenol, I don't know what i would have done. BE prepared guys-with AT LEAST a weeks worth of stuff!!! Fudge bars are nice-you can rub the back of your throat with their icy goodness !!!

[RedWeasel, RN]

I mentioned my experience above because of the tendency for some of the others who have have infections on top of the H1N1. I wonder if doctors are thinking about it. In all my years of having strep throat-four times a year usually-till I had my tonsils out at 26-I never got strep in the summer-or WITH a supposed sinus infection. I think H1N1 will be presenting to ERs as other things and missed because my doc thought nothing of the flu. Looking back though, when I get the flu-I get a sinus infection. Sorry for the digression.

[DManAZRN]

Wow, someone missed some data here! Sure would like to know if Tamiflu/Antivirals were given? Duh.

Some article. Typical media. Guy was prolly having an ALL Rxn to something they gave him he'd never had before..... hmmmm

My Immune system is so strong it kills the cockroaches in the backyard!

Adapt or die (Darwin) This goes for our careers too.....

[indigo girl]

http://www.flutrackers.com/forum/showpost.php?p=265349&postcount=1

There are two cases in this article but, the child is more likely not to have had any prior health issues. The GP was carrying some extra weight that might have contributed to his demise. This is a very sad story as these cases always are.

She is the first child in the UK without underlying health problems to be killed by the virus.

Chloe Buckley, who lived in West Drayton, London, died at St Mary's Hospital in Paddington a day after her doctor allegedly misdiagnosed her illness as tonsillitis.

It is claimed the schoolgirl was taken to her GP with a sore throat on Wednesday but was sent home without being prescribed the antiviral flu drug Tamiflu. Her condition deteriorated overnight and her parents Michael, 40, and Jacinta, 37, then rushed Chloe to Hillingdon Hospital in Uxbridge on Thursday morning.

She was transferred for emergency treatment to St Mary's but died a few hours later on Thursday evening. She was due to celebrate her seventh birthday on Friday.

Provisional tests revealed she had contracted swine flu although a post mortem is expected to confirm the cause of death today.

[indigo girl]

Cordoba, Argentina

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-07/17/content_11722968.htm

Argentina's A/H1N1 flu death toll rose on Thursday to 155 after health authorities confirmed the death of a 31-year-old male patient in Cordoba province, some 700 km west of Buenos Aires.

Cordoba's Health Director Oscar Gonzalez said that the patient was hospitalized with flu symptoms on June 11 in the provincial capital. Then his situation went worse.

The patients received respiratory assistance, and tested positive for A/H1N1 flu on July 13, said Gonzalez, adding that the victim did not suffer from other major diseases.

[indigo girl]

Sweden

http://www.flutrackers.com/forum/showpost.php?p=268873&postcount=1

I am placing this Swedish case here because this was a previously healthy young person. He is still alive though in critical condition, and ECMO is use. He was not given Tamiflu initially because like so many others, he tested negative on the rapid flu test.

This appears to be Sweden's first severe case. Other media reports indicate that he was probably infected by his girlfriend who had a mild case after her return from a vacation in Cyprus. Christer Liedgren is the physician caring for this patient.

Situation is becoming worse and worse for the 22-year-old man who is cared for with swine influenza in Norrköping.

He now fights for his life.

Doctors are preparing for an artificial lung.

The man was hospitalized last week after it was found that had developed a severe pneumonia. The disease requires treatment by a ventilator.

Artificial lung

On Monday came information that the man's condition has become worse. He is fighting now for his life and the care of respirator is no longer suffices.

Now efforts are prepared with an artificial lung, known as ECMO-treatment, writes Dagens Nyheter.

- Despite increased oxygen supply the oxygen saturation in the blood is falling, " says Christer Liedgren to DN.se.

Already on Sunday Vrinnevi Hospital took contact with ECMO team at the Karolinska University Hospital (KS) in Stockholm.

On Monday, the ECMO treatment will start at the Vrinnevi Hospital. Where the patient then will be cared for, is still unclear.

According to Christer Liedgren he will be moved.

Was completely healthy

The 22-year-old is a previously completely healthy man. He was probably infected by a relative who had been traveling in Southern Europe. Doctors have no explanation for why the 22-year-old has been hit so hard. The case is described as the, so far, most serious case of H1N1-flu in Sweden.

- There is nothing in his condition picture that explains why he hit so hard, "says Liedgren.

http://www.aftonbladet.se/nyheter/article5536509.ab

[indigo girl]

Lee's County, Florida

http://www.winknews.com/news/local/51408142.html

The Lee County Health Department confirmed the county's first death from the H1N1 virus Wednesday.

The 51 year old man who died had no pre-existing medical conditions or chronic illnesses according to the Health Department. He was one of forty-three confirmed cases of swine flu in Lee County since April.

[CrunchRN, ADN, RN]

I wonder if he was obese or had heart disease that hadn't been discovered. I want that kind of answer because my husband is 50...........

[oramar]

http://www.flutrackers.com/forum/showpost.php?p=265349&postcount=1

There are two cases in this article but, the child is more likely not to have had any prior health issues. The GP was carrying some extra weight that might have contributed to his demise. This is a very sad story as these cases always are.

It rankles me that she was misdiagnosed as tonsillitis. Hello, we are in the middle of an influenza pandemic here.

[indigo girl]

I wonder if he was obese or had heart disease that hadn't been discovered. I want that kind of answer because my husband is 50...........

You are referring to post #56? If he had a heart problem or was obese, they would have said that he had a prior existing health problem. By this time, it is well known that this flu virus can kill in the presence of obesity and heart disease.

When they say there were no exacerbating factors, it means that they cannot explain his death in any other way. It is most likely that he developed viral pneumonia and possibly multi-organ failure. To me, 51 is young to be dying in this way for an otherwise healthy man. I think that we can expect to see many more cases like this.