H1N1. How does one die from it?

[m&m's mom]

My friend died yesterday of complications of H1N1. He was absolutely healthy, 54 years old (so there goes the "safe if born before 1957 theory.")

Thurs Oct 8th - fine
Fri Oct 9th - started to cough, bad cough by the 10th
Monday the 12th - went to the doctor, was told it was flu, go home and drink liquids, etc.
Thursday the 15th - couldnt get rid of fever so he went back to the doctor; doctor told him to go to the ER -
Friday the 16th - severe pheunmonia/sepsus (sp) -put on a ventilator and into drug induced coma - over the weekend, other organs (liver, kidneys) in distress; heart rate and blood pressure low
Wednesday the 21st - put on ECMO machine; procedure went well; doctors were optimisic (also dialysis; had gained 60 lbs of retained fluid)
Sunday the 25th - despite the ECMO, couldn't get enough oxygen into his blood
Monday the 26th - disconnected from the machines and passed away 30 minutes later

This was a guy who hadn't taken a sick day in 25 years and who had terrific medical care from a large urban hospital.

Yep- due to the promanince of the man it certainly was in the news a lot. That is interesting to hear the "news behind the news". Very sad and I am sorry since I see he was your friend.

 

[laurie31]

Not H1N1, but a student of mine (I teach preschool) had a 13 year old cousin die from the flu 2 years ago. I couldn't believe it! I always thought that the very young or the very old died from the flu. The young girl had gone to a birthday party on the weekend, by Tuesday was in the hospital, and died the following weekend. She did not have an underlying condition. The fluid in her lungs was sent to the CDC. She died from the flu. So sad!

Flu was HORRIBLE here that year. So many children were in ICU on life support from flu that the CDC was called in to investigate. It scared me to death. I couldn't get flu vaccine for my kids fast enough. I was actually more scared that year than I am right now.

I googled some articles from back then (the 2006-2007 flu season) and wow, they sound just like the things we're hearing now.

http://www.blackherbals.com/6_area_children_with_flu_life_support.htm

December 22, 2006

Six children are on life support at Children's Hospital fighting severe cases of influenza, hospital officials said.

The severity of the cases, many developing in the past two weeks, has raised concerns in Birmingham's pediatric medical community, said Dr. David Kimberlin, who specializes in pediatric infectious diseases at UAB.

"It is not the volume and not even the time of year that is jumping out at us," he said. "It is more that, for a number of otherwise healthy children, they are ending up on life support from the flu. The number of times that is occurring - it seems out of the ordinary, at least for now."

Influenza has hit Birmingham area children hard and early this year, with at least 10 reports of critically ill children, said Raenetta Ellison, influenza surveillance coordinator for the Jefferson County Health Department.

Normally, cases of that number and severity are not reported until late January, February and March, she said.

Alabama elevated its weekly influenza report to the "widespread outbrea" category this week, compared with the "regional outbreak" category last week, said Katina James, an epidemiologist with the Alabama Department of Public Health.


"Alabama had influenza activity earlier than most other states this year," Kimberlin said. "Right now, we and Florida and perhaps Georgia are really experiencing the largest outbreak of influenza in the country. We have a lot of children in the hospital with influenza, and that includes some very sick children in ICU."

The level of life support varies among the six patients, all of whom have respiratory failure, Kimberlin said. In some cases, in addition to a ventilator, additional support is needed, such as a heart and lung bypass machine.

While most of the younger flu patients are not that severely ill, emergency rooms and doctor's offices are staying packed with sick children, he said.

"I would like to know more so we can better understand what we are comparing this against," Kimberlin said. Outside of data that would better track the number of pediatric flu cases, "we are left with clinical impression. And this seems to be a particularly bad year, at least for some normal children who are getting the flu," he said.

Kimberlin, who is an associate professor of pediatrics at UAB, mentioned the 2003-04 flu season, when 153 influenza-associated deaths in children younger than 18 were reported by state health departments across the country. At that time, doctors determined that they did not know enough about how many children get sick during a flu season. Although studies and other types of surveys have been established since then, more time is needed to better compare one year with another, he said.



Hundreds sick:

Pinson Elementary and Chalkville Elementary in Jefferson County have reported hundreds of children out sick, many with flu-like symptoms, said Nez Calhoun, Jefferson County schools spokeswoman.

Two weeks ago, the schools had 300 and 400 students out sick, many with flu-like symptoms, on a Thursday and Friday, compared with about 30 to 40 students out sick a year ago. School officials sent letters home to parents urging them to keep sick children at home, she said.

Ellison, who monitors the number and severity of flu cases with the help of participating physicians, said she is urging parents to get their children flu shots and practice good hygiene.

For the week of Dec. 10-16, 186 patients with influenza-like illness, mostly children, sought treatment with a physician participating with the Jefferson County influenza surveillance program, she said. There were 50 such patients at the same time last year.


E-mail: losburn@bhamnews.com
http://www.al.com/news/birminghamnews/index.ssf?/base/news/1166793395185660.xml&coll=2

>
© 2006 The Birmingham News

and here's a follow-up article:http://pandemicchronicle.com/2006/12/alabamas-influenza-in-children-follow-up/

CDC asked to probe severe pediatric flu in Birmingham area

Associated Press Fri, Dec. 29, 2006
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has been asked to investigate several severe influenza cases in the Birmingham area that have caused at least nine children to be hospitalized, officials said.

Five of six children who were on life support at Children’s Hospital have improved, but three more children were admitted with severe flu cases in the past week, hospital officials said.

"There are still a lot of children going to the emergency room and a number of children admitted to the hospital."

Kimberlin told The Birmingham News in a story Friday that the CDC in Atlanta was contacted after the severity of pediatric flu cases raised concerns in Birmingham’s medical community.

He said none of the original six children on life support had been vaccinated. Doctors have identified the presence of both A and B strains of the virus and the CDC will further research the flu strains that were causing some of the more severe cases.

From the CDC: http://www.cdc.gov/FLU/about/qa/0607season.htm

Flu Deaths in Children

How many children have died from flu-associated complications during previous flu seasons?

During the 2003-04 Season, 153 flu-associated deaths in children were reported to CDC.
During the 2004-05 Season, 47 deaths in children were reported to CDC.
During the 2005-06 Season, 46 deaths in children were reported to CDC.
As of August 6, 2007, 68 deaths in children occurring during the 2006-07 season have been reported to CDC.

Here's a more recent CDC release:

Each year, the flu is reported to be responsible for almost 36,000 deaths, including about 46 to 74 deaths in children. Last year (2008-09 flu season), 97 deaths in children were reported to the National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System.

There have been 53 influenza-associated pediatric deaths from swine flu since August 30.

This article is about Nebraska, Oklahoma, and also North Carolina cases from 2006-2007. So it was bad in many other places as well.
http://cbs11tv.com/health/CDC.Flu.Child.2.499672.html


My point is that although the deaths this year are certainly tragic, there have been flu deaths all along, but normally they fly "under the radar" with the media, and we don't hear about it. Even in '06-'07, I don't remember hearing about it on TV, just reading the two articles in the newspaper that I quoted. (The Birmingham News).


The rapid decompensation that a small minority of patients experience, patients like missypie's friend, FeralPeg's friend, the girl QueenRocks knew, and the little 5 year old boy on ECMO now (in another thread), is so unpredictable, and so hard to stop. It's really rare, but that doesn't make it easier when it's happening to someone you love. Why do some previously healthy people do this? No one knows, which makes it doubly scary. If no one knows why it happens, no one knows what to do to prevent it.

 

[C.Ann]

@C.Ann Sorry, I worded that wrong. I was told from a usually reliable source that if you are pregnant than Swine Flu is more fatal to you than it would be if you weren't pregnant. I'm not saying that being pregnant is a medical condition or anything of the sort. I'm sorry if I upset you.

No problem.. I'm long past the age of worrying about pregnancy - LOL..

It just annoys me that the media (when speaking of the H1N1 fatalities) refers to perfectly healthy normal pregnancies as an "underlying health condition".. To me that's the same as saying "Joe Smith died from swine flu due to a borken arm two years ago - an underlying health condition.." KWIM?

 

[Feralpeg]

The rapid decompensation that a small minority of patients experience, patients like missypie's friend, FeralPeg's friend, the girl QueenRocks knew, and the little 5 year old boy on ECMO now (in another thread), is so unpredictable, and so hard to stop. It's really rare, but that doesn't make it easier when it's happening to someone you love. Why do some previously healthy people do this? No one knows, which makes it doubly scary. If no one knows why it happens, no one knows what to do to prevent it.

This is what bothers me so much about this flu. It seems like in prior years, most people who died had other health issues. Not that it wasn't still horrible, but, those of us without known health issues were pretty sure we would pull through a bout of the flu. H1N1 seems to be different. There doesn't appear to be a good indicator of who is more likely to have a really hard time with this flu. People, who are in good health, are dying from H1N1. How do you know whether to run to the doctor or try to wait it out. My friend didn't know that his system would react so badly to the virus. Up until he got sick with H1N1, he was a strong, active man. He went down hill so fast, there was nothing they could do for him.

 

[laurie31]

No problem.. I'm long past the age of worrying about pregnancy - LOL..

It just annoys me that the media (when speaking of the H1N1 fatalities) refers to perfectly healthy normal pregnancies as an "underlying health condition".. To me that's the same as saying "Joe Smith died from swine flu due to a borken arm two years ago - an underlying health condition.." KWIM?

Disney1990 explained why pregnancy is a risk factor for flu complications very nicely in this post:

The pregnant female body is designed to not fight off illnesses or foreign bodies because otherwise it would be fighting to get rid of the fetus. Therefore, it will not fight off the flu (or H1N1) making it even more dangerous to a person that is pregnant. In addition, the fetus pushes up against the lungs making it difficult for a pregnant female to take in full deep breaths. (After surgery, they give you something to regularly blow in to help you to fully breathe and take in deep breaths). Without the ability to take in deep breaths you cannot properly fight off the flu after it lands in your lungs and H1N1 is more deeply inbedded in your lungs than the regular flu - this is what leads to pneumonia.

It's not that pregnancy is a disease, but the added stress on the body of carrying a baby and the normal changes due to pregnancy makes you more at risk for respiratory complications. We learned in school that pregnant women are almost a third gender, as they are so different physiologically from non-pregnant women.

My second pregnancy was breech and also LGA (large for gestational age - she weighed 9 lbs 12 oz when she was born at 38 weeks). When I arrived at the hospital to give birth, they thought I was in respiratory distress because my respiratory rate was so high, but it was because DD was so high up, I couldn't take a deep breath at all. I would have been in big trouble if I'd gotten any kind of respiratory infection.

 

[Darsa]

This has got to be one of the most frightening threads I have ever read on this board... ever. I will not get home to baby my poor sick DD soon enough; half an hour til I get to leave.

 

[Christine]

@C.Ann Sorry, I worded that wrong. I was told from a usually reliable source that if you are pregnant than Swine Flu is more fatal to you than it would be if you weren't pregnant. I'm not saying that being pregnant is a medical condition or anything of the sort. I'm sorry if I upset you.

Being pregnant, however, compromises the immune system. And while your not compromised like a cancer patient, there is *some* compromise to the immune system. Flu shots are always recommended to women who are pregnant through the winter months for this reason, so, yeah, being pregnant is sort of like having an underlying medical condition.

 

[3boymthr]

Okay, so my kids are sick today (102.4 and 102.7 fevers for youngest and oldest - middle is healthy so far). And this thread is terrifying me. Especially the cytokine storm part.

 

[missypie]

Okay, so my kids are sick today (102.4 and 102.7 fevers for youngest and oldest - middle is healthy so far). And this thread is terrifying me. Especially the cytokine storm part.

The first email that we received that raised any type of alarm with respect to my friend (when he was still at home) was that he still had a high fever after five days. You might want to do a bit of research on how long the fever is supposed to last. My friend's initial 5 days of high fever was a clue that his body was fighting something really bad.

 

[N&B'smom]

The first email that we received that raised any type of alarm with respect to my friend (when he was still at home) was that he still had a high fever after five days. You might want to do a bit of research on how long the fever is supposed to last. My friend's initial 5 days of high fever was a clue that his body was fighting something really bad.

My DD's fever lasted for five days and it was high. Thankfully after day 5 it was gone. So sorry it didn't work out that way for your friend, missypie.

 

[Crystal0608]

This has got to be one of the most frightening threads I have ever read on this board... ever. I will not get home to baby my poor sick DD soon enough; half an hour til I get to leave.

ITA, my ds is on day 5 and its not over yet. Scares the heck out of me. I've been out of work 3 days and really don't want to leave him even for a few hrs tomorrow.

 

[N&B'smom]

ITA, my ds is on day 5 and its not over yet. Scares the heck out of me. I've been out of work 3 days and really don't want to leave him even for a few hrs tomorrow.

I know how you feel. I didn't sleep right the entire time. The cough is all that's left at this point and thankfully it's slowly breaking up and disappearing. I pray that your DS is on the right path to getting better asap!!!

 

[bumbershoot]

I always find it hard to post on such threads because people think I sound heartless. But I'm not.

With this, though, I've been stepping out more and more, because I fear for people following the "rules" on this.

In my circles, at least, it's pretty well known that, for instance, chicken pox became scary as western medicine wanted to fight the symptoms. It itches, make it stop. Tehre are red marks, make it stop. Fever, make it stop, and so on. Finally the virus was "pushed" so far down into the body that it became deadly, while before it was just a big ol' bunch of nothing. So now people are scared of it, when tey should really be scared of the AMA's response to just knock down the symptoms one by one.

And that's what I feel I'm seeing when people write about their experiences, or friends' experiences or those of friends of friends, but no one is seeing it, so I'm speaking up.


It's pretty well known, as well, that the 1918 flu was dealt with FAR better by people receiving homeopathic help rather than other types of help. I feel that's because it is finding a specific remedy, based on your exact picture (personality, physical self, and current symptoms), rather than a one size fits all approach. And it just pushes the body into helping itself gently, rather than slamming it with help like echinacea, etc (which normally I am happy with) sending it into the "cytokine storm".

From what I understand, the virus is able to get into the lungs deeper, causing the lungs to be more susceptible to the virus and also to bacteria, so secondary bacterial pneumonias hit hard, such as MRSA pneumonia.

And I worry that the overuse of antibiotics is helping cause this. My son is in the middle of his very first prescription of antibiotics, and he's almost 5.5. With my friends' kids, they'd had something like 3 batches of that drug every year of their life... He is only taking them because he'd been sick for 2 weeks, got better, we went to DLR, his lymph nodes and tonsils swelled to the point of distorting his face and neck (and yes, I was thinking mumps), then I took him in to be swabbed (and they did bloodwork as well), he tested positive for strep (a 3 point something on a 0-4 scale). So he's taking them now. My husband hasn't had antibiotics in probably 20 years. I had them in '93 (for something someone thought I had, but my results came in on the last day of taking them, and I was negative) and then a massive dose "just in case" in '04. I haven't been "right" since that dose.

So you get someone who is sick, they go to the doctor and get in touch with lots and lots of currently sick, coughing, sneezing people, and it's no wonder they might get much much sicker after that.

The nurse at our hospital said "little people have little lungs,which is why they are dying".

This is not against you. This is against the nurse and her utterly ridiculous non-answer. If someone, including my NICU nurse stepmom, said that to me, they would get a glare along with "I am not a toddler, you're going to have to do better" type of response.

And since when is a perfectly normal, healthy pregnancy considered an "underlying health condition"? In all the years I've been around - even back when swine flu was here before - I never heard of women dying from it (or any other flu, for that matter) due to a healthy "pregnancy"..[/B][/I]

IMO, it's because pregnant women in America, in western cultures that I've noticed, are *treated* like they are dainty things that can't withstand anything.

My Korean MIL...except for wanting to make sure I was warm all the time, even my feet (b/c feet are related to the uterus in Korean culture, at least in her village of birth), pretty much felt I should be in the fields through my whole pregnancy. And ya know what? I would have been better for it.

When pg women get sick, people get scared. When health care people get scared, they start reaction from fear, and reacting from fear is never a good place to be. And it's especially scary when scared people are wanting to treat a pregnant woman. Same with an older pg woman. They are in greater danger because they are perceived to be in greater danger, and their caregivers treat them differently.




I have read several times on this thread of fevers that just wouldn't go away. And that sounds to me like the sick people, or their parents, are trying to make the fever go away. Why? Fever is doing good work. Fever is the body's natural response to reacting to a "bug" that is trying to take over. If the person is horribly uncomfortable, a tepid bath can cool the person down, give the person a respite...often that lets the body kick itself in and it will stay lower. Sometimes it will go back up; the work isn't yet done.

I am so so sorry for those who have died, but some of it, from my perspective, makes no sense. Convulsing with a fever of 104...why? 104 isn't that high. What else was going on?



In addition, why fight a cough? A cough is trying to get the crud OUT. Why stop that action? Won't that *cause* pneumonia? If you're fighting the cough, and not letting the stuff get out, where is it going? Where CAN it go? Nowhere. Is it hard to have a kidlet cough? Yes. YOu feel bad for them, you feel bad for yourself. If you have to work, you're in trouble, because even if you have a caregiver who will take sick kids, you're not getting much sleep. It's not fun. it's not fun if you do NOT work outside the home either, I can tell you that. But then the kidlet coughs up all the gunk bit by bit, their nose dries up bit by bit, it's over, bit by bit.

My great grandfather saw one of his 6 or 7 daughters, all living at home, through diphtheria. She was the only one in the home who got it (so much for it being very contagious). Every time her throat would start to grow the membrane, he put his finger in her mouth and swept it clear. Was he up with her night after night, by her side day after day? YES. Was it worth it? YES.


Also, these drugs...read the inactive ingredients. Corn syrup, high fructose corn syrup, artificial sweeteners, artificial dyes...we are putting even MORE junk in our bodies, as we try to stop the natural, normal, helpful response that the body is trying to create. The body is mounting a defense, and not only are we stopping it, we're putting crud in along with it. "take this pill and swallow it with a Coke" is what you do if you use Nyquil with HFCS (last time I checked the label). No one does that. That would be disgusting.



Always there will be exceptions. Even in my household, where health philosophy was one of the pillars of our relationship, there have been exceptions. Hubby went through a benign-but-growing-so-fast-he-"had"-6-months-to-live brain tumor, and healed it with extreme macrobiotics, juicing, enzymes, and hyperbaric chamber, all paid out of pocket a couple years before I met him...

I met him mere months after my mother died of bleeding out while in remission from leukemia, where her health care team had SCOFFED at her new symptoms that, when I heard them (and when my NICU nurse stepmom heard them...by the way, she and I diagnosed my mom with leukemia based on symptoms a month before it finally showed up on the tests) screamed "bleeding ulcer". She started coughing one morning, and that was it. A few minutes later, gone. Her doctors lied and wrote "leukemia" on her death certificate. Even though she was in remission. And hadn't died from it. Died from heparin and bleeding ulcer. The docs billed my stepdad...he wrote to them, explaining their reactions to her symptoms that she'd been complaining of, let them know that they caused her death and it was inappropriate to bill him for that last month of her care...never heard from them again.

So hubby and I met shortly after that. I was in awe. Now...has he always been able to act towards us the way he acted towards himself? No.

And right now, despite our issues with western medicine, he's taking one drug and injecting another. DS is taking antibiotics. But I found a compounding pharmacy to take the antibiotics out of the gelatin capsule and put them in a cellulose one. I refused to give him the liquid, as it's a reconstituted powder with color and flavor in it...and I bet sweetener, which likely means corn syrup solids...not going to happen. As I kill the bacteria in his body, I'm not going to harm it more with those things. So I got to pay out of pocket for 10 days of antibiotics, and it's worth it. We've researched the drugs heavily, hubby finally found a doc who listens to him and does what he/we say to do (without our insistence they NEVER would have done the tests to find his prolactinoma, despite clear signs the last 3 years), the drugs do what they say, there are minimal extra inactive ingredients...there's bending, but not a dumping of philosophy. Can't give DS cough medicine even if we wanted to because of corn syrup and artificial sweeteners...so we've learned to work with his body instead of against it.



Just...think before you quash symptoms. The body is trying to work...let it be.

 

[taximomfor4]

I have read several times on this thread of fevers that just wouldn't go away. And that sounds to me like the sick people, or their parents, are trying to make the fever go away. Why? Fever is doing good work. Fever is the body's natural response to reacting to a "bug" that is trying to take over. If the person is horribly uncomfortable, a tepid bath can cool the person down, give the person a respite...often that lets the body kick itself in and it will stay lower. Sometimes it will go back up; the work isn't yet done.

Been trying to say the same thing. Fever is your BODY doing its job. Same with cough. I am very, very against cough suppressants in almost all cases. In fact, out of desperation for a night of sleep during my recent case of flu, I took the Mucinex DM the dr strongly recommended. 1 pill, took it 1 time. I kept waking up all night ANYWAY, feeling like I needed to cough, but couldn't get a decent cough to come out. It was the most disturbing feeling!

 

[monkeybug]

I have read several times on this thread of fevers that just wouldn't go away. And that sounds to me like the sick people, or their parents, are trying to make the fever go away. Why? Fever is doing good work. Fever is the body's natural response to reacting to a "bug" that is trying to take over. If the person is horribly uncomfortable, a tepid bath can cool the person down, give the person a respite...often that lets the body kick itself in and it will stay lower. Sometimes it will go back up; the work isn't yet done.

I am so so sorry for those who have died, but some of it, from my perspective, makes no sense. Convulsing with a fever of 104...why? 104 isn't that high. What else was going on?



In addition, why fight a cough? A cough is trying to get the crud OUT. Why stop that action? Won't that *cause* pneumonia? If you're fighting the cough, and not letting the stuff get out, where is it going? Where CAN it go? Nowhere. Is it hard to have a kidlet cough? Yes. YOu feel bad for them, you feel bad for yourself. If you have to work, you're in trouble, because even if you have a caregiver who will take sick kids, you're not getting much sleep. It's not fun. it's not fun if you do NOT work outside the home either, I can tell you that. But then the kidlet coughs up all the gunk bit by bit, their nose dries up bit by bit, it's over, bit by bit.

While it is true that a fever is your bodies way of fighting off an infection, there is very good reason to treat fever, especially in children. Drs don't tell you to treat a fever in kids because they want the kids to be more comfortable, they do it because fever can needlessly kill children. In third world countries where "western" medicine like tylenol is not readily available children die from fevers associated with teething. How sad! And a fever of 104.5 or greater is when the risk of seizures is for children, so not as high as you might think. In our home we don't treat a fever under 100*, but anything higher than that gets fever reducing medicine, especially as children can spike fevers very quickly, and if you don't get them the medicine they need soon enough it can be too late. That is why most Peds tell you to always treat a fever in children.
Cough medicine is not always only cough suppressant. There are some medicines that thin the mucus and make it easier to clear out of your chest, getting more of that "gunk" out with each cough. While we generally don't use cough suppressants sometimes a good nights sleep is just as helpful as a good coughing fit in helping your body fight something off.
I'm glad to hear that you use antibiotics when necessary. I had an old boyfriend whose family didn't believe in "western" medicine. His younger brother contracted strep and while he did eventually recover with out the need of antibiotics, the infection left him with an enlarged heart (as strep infections can do) and he died awaiting a heart transplant. It broke everyone's heart that this young healthy teenager died from something a simple round of antibiotics could have prevented. The attitude that medicine is unnatural and therefore bad can be a really dangerous perspective.

 

[HelenePA]

My son had the EXACT same illness. Once the fever left, he had a terrible cough. I hated sending him to school like that but what are you gonna do? His cough annoyed everyone around him for about 5 days. I thought it wasn't ever going to go away. I remember one Sunday (about 7 days after his fever was gone) we were in the mall and he was just coughing. It seemed like it was getting worse and I thought "Oh boy, we're going to have to go back to the doctor." And then the very next day it was totally gone. I mean totally. It didn't just taper off. I just stopped.

My son had it too! Monday sent him to school with the cough. Tuesday it got worse he stayed home from school Tuesday into Wednesday it got worse! Threw up 2 times. Went back to sleep and poof it was gone. We went to the dr's yesterday and he's fine.. no fever. lungs are fine. He gave us an antibiotic just in case but its gone. I wish my cough would do the same disappearing act!

 

[Colleen27]

What I've been reading/hearing puts it mostly on secondary infection. The body is weakened by fighting H1N1, particularly the lungs, and is thus more vulnerable to pneumonia, staph, and anything else one might have been exposed to. That's why they're stressing the "bounceback" fever as an important warning sign - it can be the first symptom of the secondary infection. That's also why it has been such a problem for teens, according to a couple of things I've seen - they're exposed to more because of the settings in which they spend time, large groups, sports fields/locker rooms (where staph is very common), etc.

 

[carone0318]

This is my kids school district, we live in Westampton. It is kind of scary. There was a Honeywell Instant Alert from the school district when I came home from work yesterday saying that Westampton Twp will be issuing the H1N1 vaccinations, but they do not have the vaccinations yet, so we have to wait for a follow up message stating when the clinic will be. RVRHS is a huge school, there are probably close to between 1500-2000 kids in that school - 5 regional sending districts.

My poor ds (8 in 3rd grade) said to his dad yesterday that he needs to get the shot because Swine Flu is getting close. I can only image what is going on in that head of his...

I have heard some other stories about the boy who died, but they are just here say. Supposedly he was sick, but was feeling better.

Still praying for you guys. Never taken a sick day. Wow.




This is the news from today:

I am not sure that this student died of H1N1, but the article does provide information about the cause of death for some people who have died of H1N1.



Student's sudden death fuels swine flu fears
By Edward Colimore
Inquirer Staff Writer

He went to classes at Rancocas Valley Regional High School in Mount Holly every day last week and showed no sign of illness, school officials said.

But on Saturday, 17-year-old Andre Mendez's temperature shot up to 104 degrees and he was having convulsions when paramedics arrived, according to the officials.

Mendez, a sophomore, died at Virtua Memorial Hospital in Mount Holly later that day, school authorities said, leaving health officials with a mystery they hope to solve today or tomorrow when lab tests are to be released by the state.

News of the death saddened students and parents and set off concerns yesterday that Mendez may have had the H1N1 virus that state health officials say has claimed 18 lives in New Jersey since the first case in June.

"Though there may be rumors, the cause of death is unconfirmed," said Michael Moskalski, the high school superintendent and principal. "H1N1 is a possibility, but we're awaiting the results from the cultures and testing."

Deaths involving the virus typically come days after a person is infected and are caused when his or her lungs fill with fluid, health officials said.

Those from the seasonal flu often occur one or two weeks after a person's initial infection, because the person has developed a secondary bacterial infection, such as a staph infection, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The test results will be released to the Burlington County Health Department, which will share them with school officials.

In the meantime, Moskalski said that he will ask the school board at a meeting tonight to authorize a school-based clinic to provide H1N1 vaccinations, probably in the gymnasium.

If approved, the shots would likely be given by the county health department by the end of November, he said.

"We have been sanitizing hard surfaces weekly and that will be increased to nightly so we can be sure the buildings will be clean," Moskalski said. But the flu "is spread through the air so that might not make a difference.

"We're doing everything that has been recommended," he said. "The goal this fall is to keep the schools open."

News of Mendez's death was shared with the students and staff members over the school intercom and counselors were made available.

"We have a crisis-intervention team that goes into place to provide the counseling services in a safe room for all grieving students," said Moskalski.

"If additional resources are needed, we can call on other districts to send people."

According to school staff, Mendez was in class all last week and appeared to be "fine on Friday. They didn't notice anything unusual and he didn't go to the nurse's office," the superintendent said.

The Burlington County health Department in Westampton will hold H1N1 flu shot clinics to vaccinate residents in priority groups from 2 to 4 p.m. on Nov. 6, 13 and 20, said Loretta O'Donnell, a county spokeswoman.

The groups include children 6 months to 5 years old, pregnant women, caregivers of children and health-care workers.

Vaccinations will be given throughout the Mount Laurel school system today through Thursday, O'Donnell said.

Additional clinics will be scheduled as the vaccine becomes available.

"This is a long-term campaign that will continue for months until everyone who wants an H1N1 vaccination has received one," said county Public Health Coordinator Robert Gogats.




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Contact staff writer Edward Colimore at 856-779-3833 or ecolimore@phillynews.com.