Select Specialty Hospital nurse’s death is a confirmed case of swine flu
It is now official: Knox County has had its first swine flu death.
http://www.volunteertv.com/home/headlines/62405642.html
Posted: 5:45 PM Sep 28, 2009
Reporter: Amber Miller
Email Address: amber.miller@wvlt-tv.com
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WVLT) — It is now official: Knox County has had its first swine flu death.
A couple of weeks ago, we told you that Tina Henson Vick, 43, who was a nurse at Select Specialty Hospital at Saint Mary’s died, and her family believed it was because of H1N1.
Now that the CDC has confirmed it, they wanted to get their story out.
Tina Vick’s family wants everyone to know that the H1N1 virus moves quickly and it can affect anyone.
“No one thought she was going to die,” Ronnie Dunn, Tina’s uncle said.
From a backrow pew at his church Monday, Dunn said he felt comfortable for the first time, talking about his niece’s death.
When doctors handed the paperwork to Tina’s family, they took notes: verified by the CDC. Influenza H1n1 positive.
“From the day she was born, she was smiling and she never quit smiling. And she just had the sweetest personality in the world,” Dunn commented as he looked at old pictures.
Dunn was the only family member up for talking.
And he says they all think it is important they get Tina’s story out.
“Tina Michelle Henson Vick is the first confirmed death in Knox County with the H1N1 swine flu,” Dunn repeated.
Vick’s death, he says, is noteworthy because she was healthy and she was a nurse.
“I think she was exposed to someone while she was at work because there were seven or eight other nurses who went home with flu-like symptoms that weekend,” Dunn told Volunteer TV.
H1N1: Heart needs to be checked too
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-4917119,prtpage-1.cms
H1N1: Heart needs to be checked too
Kounteya Sinha , TNN 21 August 2009, 03:55am IST
NEW DELHI: Scientists analysing the earliest deaths due to swine flu in Mexico, believed to be the country of origin of the H1N1 virus, had made a vital finding this week - almost 62% of the fatal cases had an increased level of Creatine Kinase (CK).
Present in skeletal and heart muscles, this enzyme if secreted in higher quantities is an indication of heart or muscle damage. In cases of H1N1 infection, scientists found that patients who died of Myocarditis or inflammation of the heart muscle had increased CK levels.
The finding is crucial for India which has also reported deaths due to Myocarditis following H1N1 infection. Samrat Pandya, the 31-year-old resident of Gurgaon, who died on Thursday following two cardiac arrests, was diagnosed with myocarditis after an ECG was conducted. A central team that returned from Pune also reported deaths there due to Myocarditis.
Experts now are saying that doctors in charge of screening patients with H1N1 symptoms, besides looking at lungs for pneumonia or other respiratory diseases caused by H1N1, should also look for the condition of the heart. Professor of medicine at AIIMS Dr Randeep Guleria said an eco cardiograph must be done to rule out heart complications of a suspected H1N1 patient.
“If muscles and the heart gets damaged, they start secreting CK. Rise in CK means there is muscle or heart damage. In some people virus stays in the throat while in serious cases, it goes into the lungs causing pneumonia and enters the blood circulation to go to various organs, later causing multi organ failure. Therefore it is vital that doctors don’t just look at the lungs but also the heart. If found affected, the treatment has to be then modified accordingly,” Dr Guleria said.