This family isn’t laughing about the flu...
Friday, Oct. 2, 2009
Dalton swine flu death ‘heightens awareness’
http://timesfreepress.com/news/2009/oct/02/dalton-swine-flu-death-heightens-awareness/
By: Kelli Gauthier
By: Kelly Jackson
By: Perla Trevizo
DALTON, Ga. — Michael Starks was waiting to pick up his 7-year-old granddaughter from City Park Elementary School on Thursday when he learned that a second-grader there had died Wednesday from the flu.
He was “concerned for all the kids,” Mr. Starks said, and planned to talk to his second-grade granddaughter immediately to “see how she’s doing.”
Candy Chen, 7, died at a hospital, officials said Wednesday. Her death is the first from the H1N1 flu virus in Whitfield County, said North Georgia Health District spokeswoman Jennifer Moorer
Candy’s parents, could not be reached for comment Thursday afternoon.
City Park principal Rick Little sent a note to parents about the death. He told them that health officials had advised him not to “make any changes in our student health and safety protocols.”
Nobody that ever lost a person to the flu is laughing about it, but this hysteria is not productive.