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More on previously reported death - 22yo pediatrician’s daughter
H1N1 suspected in death of 22-year-old nursing student

By Vicky Eckenrode
Vicky.Eckenrode@StarNewsOnline.com

Published: Wednesday, December 2, 2009 at 4:43 p.m.
Last Modified: Wednesday, December 2, 2009 at 4:43 p.m.

With a pediatrician for a father and an intensive care nurse for a mother, it was no surprise Allison Kay Blackstone Sewell wanted to work in medicine, her father said Wednesday.

Sewell, a 22-year-old wife and mother from Wilmington, died this week from what is suspected to be complications from the H1N1 virus.

She died Monday at New Hanover Regional Medical Center, days after suddenly getting sick and being put on a ventilator at the hospital’s intensive care unit.

Tests at the hospital showed she had influenza A, Blackstone said.

New Hanover County Health Department officials said a test is pending at the state public health lab to subtype the sample and to confirm if the flu strain was the H1N1 virus.

Blackstone, a pediatrician at Cape Fear Pediatrics, has been well aware of the virus since it began circulating in the spring, seeing the impact it’s had on sick patients.

He said he had an H1N1 vaccine available for Sewell, who because of her age and the fact she was asthmatic was considered to be in a high-risk group and eligible for the shot.

“She had been too sick to get her vaccine,” Blackstone said. “I had one for her, but she was ill.”

Suffering from side pains, Sewell had an outpatient gallbladder surgery two weeks ago, her father said.

She started showing signs of serious flu-like symptoms.

“Within 48 hours, she was coughing up blood,” Blackstone said.

His daughter’s death was a shock for the family.

“That’s our baby,” he said about Sewell, the youngest of five children.

He described his daughter as a straight-A student at the college and devoted mother of a 2-year-old girl.

“This was probably the happiest she’s ever been,” he said. “She was vivacious and full of life, never a loss for ideas or words.”

Family members had planned to make H1N1 vaccines available to those attending Sewell’s memorial service Thursday to raise awareness for the shots, but they have changed their mind.

Blackstone said it would be logistically impossible to do at the church and they did not want to bump ahead of area residents who are on lengthy waiting lists for the vaccine.

Instead, Blackstone said he hopes an upcoming vaccine clinic will be organized in Sewell’s honor.

He said he recognized some people still are hesitant about receiving the inoculation.

“Some people are afraid of vaccines,” he said. “When you consider that it prevents this, what’s the choice?”

Nearly 70 people have died and more than 700 people have been hospitalized in North Carolina this year from flu-like illnesses, predominately the H1N1 virus, according to statistics updated Tuesday from the state Department of Health and Human Services.

At least four other people in Southeastern N.C. have died from complications caused by the virus.

Vicky Eckenrode: 343-2339

On Twitter.com: @vickyeckenrode

http://www.starnewsonline.com/article/20091202/ARTICLES/912029962/1004