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Family of H1N1 victim helping others

Updated: Sunday, 14 Mar 2010, 11:09 PM CDT
Published : Sunday, 14 Mar 2010, 11:09 PM CDT
http://www.fox10tv.com/dpp/news/family-of-h1n1-victim-helping-others

“This has been a very traumatic week. It’s been his worst week and his best day,” admitted Mitzi Holt. Holt and her husband, Hank, have been battling the H1N1 flu virus for over a month. Hank, 54, is in a medically induced coma, and his lungs have been decimated from pneumonia.

“The ventilator blew a hole in his right lung on Monday,” explained Mitzi. “Thursday, it blew two holes in the left lung. So it was a bad week.”

Holt said the good news is those holes have healed.

“(Monday) we’re gonna try to put him on a ventilator that will be more gentle and get the moisture and the healing and the humidity down in him.”

Holt, who herself was affected with the virus but recovered, said she doesn’t want anyone else to go through what her family has. That’s why she and others organized free flu shots for the public throughout Pensacola.

“When I see people come up here and get the shot, it means so much to me. Some of the e-mails coming in say, ‘We got the shot, maybe Hank saved our lives!’” she said.

Hank’s brother Jerry, a Vietnam War vet, said Hank’s stage of H1N1 is among the worst.

“Every single person on our little blue globe that’s gotten the bad stuff is dead,” Jerry said. “They died between the 13th and 17th day. Hank’s at day 33. He’s literally a medical text being rewritten.”

With the help of free vaccines, many others’ medical futures are also being rewritten.

More than 300 people came to get those free H1N1 shots. Three residents in Santa Rosa and Escambia Counties have died from causes associated with the virus.