No Prior Existing Conditions but Dead Anyway

lamazeteacher · Jul 30, 2009

I agree about the bad reporting, as it must have been translated from Greek.

indigo girl · Jul 30, 2009

I agree about the bad reporting, as it must have been translated from Greek.

Yes, it was certainly Greek to me!

CrunchRN, ADN, RN · Jul 30, 2009

:yeah:

indigo girl · Jul 31, 2009

Chile

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-07/04/content_11649731.htm

Chilean health authorities on Friday reported two newly-confirmed A/H1N1 flu deaths, which brought the country's overall flu-related deaths to 19, out of a total of 7,342 infections.
One of the victims, a 36-year-old student paramedical technician, was viewed as an unusual case, because he did not have any pre-existing conditions. He died of pneumonia after being hospitalized on June 28 in the Conception Regional Hospital, where he had been doing his medical practice.

(hat tip flutrackers/dutchy)

indigo girl · Jul 31, 2009

Carmichael, California

http://www.sacbee.com/ourregion/story/2071046.html

I am afraid that her only prior existing condition was HCW.

A cancer nurse at Mercy San Juan Medical Center in Carmichael has died of the H1N1 flu, becoming the first reported health care worker in California killed by the new variant of swine flu.
"We're very concerned that a nurse died," said Jill Furillo of the California Nurses Association, adding that the death underscores the need for strong infection controls to protect nurses and patients.
Mercy San Juan does not know whether the nurse caught the flu on the job or elsewhere, but it has notified all patients who came in contact with her when she might have been infectious, said hospital spokesman Bryan Gardner.
Karen Ann Hays died July 17 of a severe respiratory infection, pneumonia and H1N1, according to her death certificate. She also had methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, a staph infection that is resistant to many antibiotics.
Hays, 51, was a triathlete, skydiver and marathon runner - and a mom who could listen for hours to minute details of video games that any other adult would tune out, said her 19-year-old son Ian Hays.

indigo girl · Jul 31, 2009

More info on the case in post #68 in Nevada:

http://www.lvrj.com/news/52169192.html

A few days after experiencing flulike symptoms, 34-year-old Sabrina Gibson phoned an ambulance from her workplace.
Within days, she was unconscious. She spent the next two months in the intensive care unit at Valley Hospital Medical Center, barely speaking, hooked up to monitors as her 35th birthday passed.
On July 24, after being diagnosed with the H1N1 virus and suffering massive internal bleeding and lung failure, she died.
"It took two weeks before they determined if she had the swine flu, and they cured her of that," said her father, 67-year-old Thomas Wilson, on Thursday. "But by that point, the damage had been done."
Gibson was one of two people to have died in the past week after contracting the H1N1 virus. She had no underlying medical conditions.

indigo girl · Aug 5, 2009

Corpus Christi, Texas

My heart goes out to these families.

http://www.kristv.com/Global/story.asp?S=10844587

http://www.kiiitv.com/news/local/52472937.html

The Corpus Christi - Nueces County Public Health District announced that it has received confirmation of a second death in Nueces County as a result of the H1N1 Flu Virus, which is commonly referred to as the "Swine Flu." The woman, who was a Corpus Christi resident, died at 11:24 p.m. on August 3, 2009 at Spohn South Hospital.
According to Dr. William Burgin, Jr., Local Health Authority, the woman had been hospitalized since July 20, 2009. The woman, who was in her early thirties, reportedly did not have a history of travel to Mexico or any medical condition prior to the onset of the illness.

indigo girl · Aug 5, 2009

Girl Dies on Flight Back to Brazil

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601086&sid=aaGGL1KQyEnk

If she was on Tamiflu, I cannot believe that she was traveling on an airplane in the first place.

A 15-year-old Brazilian girl who died on a flight yesterday to Sao Paulo from the U.S. was taking Tamiflu, the antiviral drug used to treat swine flu, O Globo reported.
The teenager's aunt said the girl was healthy when she traveled to the U.S. two weeks ago to visit Disneyworld and fell ill on July 29, the Rio de Janeiro-based newspaper reported. She visited a hospital in Orlando and was given Tamiflu, which can be prescribed for the swine flu, also known as the H1N1 virus, O Globo said.
Doctors traveling on the same flight tried to revive the girl after her heart and breathing had stopped, O Globo said.

indigo girl · Aug 5, 2009

South Africa

http://www.capeargus.co.za/index.php?fSectionId=3571&fArticleId=vn20090804031945592C131892

Swine flu has claimed its first South African victim - Stellenbosch University student Ruan Muller.
The 22-year-old was admitted to hospital with pneumonia after two weeks of illness, but he died last Tuesday.
The National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) confirmed on Monday that he had been diagnosed with pandemic influenza A (H1N1), commonly known as swine flu.
"Firstly, my deepest sympathy with the family, who last saw their son last week. We are truly sorry for your loss," Western Cape Health MEC Theuns Botha said on Monday.
He added that the public should not panic.
"(Muller) did not have an underlying medical condition or compromised immune system. His death was unusual and the overwhelming number of people who contract the virus recover fully," Botha said.
Lucille Blumberg, deputy director of the NICD, said that while this was unusual, it had been "well described" that new pandemic strains could cause complications in healthy individuals.

(hat tip PFI/helblindi)

indigo girl · Aug 8, 2009

Walton County, Florida

http://www.nwfdailynews.com/news/swine-19491-defuniak-year.html

I hate looking at the pictures of these young people.

A 21-year-old man died Thursday as a result of swine flu, the first such death of an Okaloosa, Santa Rosa or Walton County resident during this year’s outbreak.
Chase Ray died at Sacred Heart Hospital in Pensacola, where he’d been hospitalized for more than a week with the H1N1 virus.
“I don’t know if he’d ever been sick a day in his life” before that, said Ray’s pastor, Louis Taunton of New Beginnings Church in Freeport. “I don’t know if anybody knows how he got it.”
...on Wednesday, the Health Department did confirm two recent H1N1 cases in Walton County.
The first was detected July 15 in a 17-year-old who apparently was exposed to the virus while traveling out-of-state.
The second case, presumably Ray’s, was confirmed last week. He was believed to have contracted the virus in Orlando.
Taunton said doctors determined Ray had swine flu about a week after he was hospitalized.
Before that, “they just thought he had a bad virus, couldn’t seem to get it under control,” he said.
Ray lived about six days after his case was confirmed.

(hat tip PFI/Ntrain2k)

indigo girl · Aug 8, 2009

Hampshire, UK

http://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/4536361./

I believe that by transferring her for special equipment, it meant that she needed ECMO. Glenfield Hospital in Leiscester is an ECMO provider.

Another difficult photo to look at...

A TALENTED teenager who dreamed of being a doctor and worked with disabled children has become the first person from Hampshire to die after contracting swine flu.
Top student Madelynne Butcher, 18, will not get the chance to open her Alevel results later this month.
It will be left to her mother Beverley to see if her daughter scored the grades she needed to get into university where she planned to study biology.
Madelynne, of Sholing, Southampton , showed no signs of illness when she headed off on holiday to Tenerife with a friend in June to celebrate finishing her exams.
However, when she returned she was sick and short of breath and her mother took her to see a doctor and then to Southampton General Hospital where she was later sedated.
After two weeks she was transferred to Glenfield Hospital in Leicester to be treated with specialist equipment.

(hat tip PFI/pixie)

indigo girl · Aug 11, 2009

Yolo County, California

http://www.dailydemocrat.com/news/ci_13036188

Stacey Speegle Hernandez, 30, of Esparto, fell sick with H1N1 and died at Woodland Memorial Hospital on Aug. 7. WHC runs the hospital.
Hernandez's mother, Tamara Brooks, and her stepfather, Sam, said they felt Hernandez's death could have been avoided with the administration of anti-viral medicine and sooner admittance into the hospital.
Brooks took Hernandez to Woodland Healthcare on July 24 when she started complaining for flu symptoms. Hospital staff administered a rapid test to verify the strain of flu. They identified the strain as type A influenza, and later confirmed H1N1 (swine flu).
When Hernandez's condition got worst, Brooks brought Hernandez back to Woodland Healthcare. The doctors said Hernandez had pneumonia and gave her antibiotics and sent her home.
Brooks said at this point Hernandez could barely talk and was very weak. She continued to get worst, so Brooks called the hospital again.
Brooks said the hospital staff said Hernandez should see her primary care physician. Brooks took Hernandez to the Esparto CommuniCare Clinic to see a primary care physician, where the doctor said she should be admitted to a hospital immediately. Hernandez was admitted to Woodland Healthcare and passed away several days later.
"We never thought (swine flu) would hit any of us," Brooks said. Hernandez was an EMT, volunteer firefighter, and in good physical condition.
Hernandez leaves behind a 10-year-old son and 9-year-old daughter.
Hernandez was not considered a high-risk patient and was treated as such, Brooks said. Her descriptions of the treatment match CDC's guidelines.
High risk patients include children less than five years of age, adults 65 or older; those with chronic pulmonary, cardiovascular, renal, hepatic, hematological, neurologic, neuromuscular, or metabolic disorders (including diabetes); immunosuppressed, pregnant women; patients younger than 19 receiving long-term aspirin therapy; residents of nursing homes and other chronic-care facilities; and obese patients (body mass index greater than 35).

(hat tip PFI/pixie)