Second death in a week in our schools

[ANewMe]

I started a thread titled "Swine Flu is now in our schools".....then I added a story about a precious 1st grader who died of bacterial meningitis on Sunday. Now this...a second one...but this time they don't know WHAT it is. Now I was told that the kid started bleeding from the mouth and keeled over....but you know how stories fly in a small town. One of my teacher friends husband works at a funeral home and he said he had symptoms of flu. So what I dont' understand is when did coughing and congestion get taken off the list of symptoms of flu???

 

Two in one week....would anyone else panic???

 

 

http://vicksburgpost.com/articles/2009/08/...c3099074863.txt

 

Warren Central student, 15, dies

 

Published:

Thursday, August 27, 2009 1:57 PM CDT

 

A 15-year-old Warren Central High School student died today while waiting to a see a physician at The Street Clinic, and his body had been sent to Jackson for an autopsy, Warren County Coroner Doug Huskey said.

 

Wesley Husband, 35 Round Alley, was in a small waiting room detached from the main waiting area at The Street Clinic on McAuley Drive, when he died at 9:30 this morning, Huskey said.

 

The teen had been out of school for several days and had been treated in an emergency room Tuesday and released, Huskey said. His symptoms had been coughing and congestion, Huskey said.

 

Wesley had been taken to the clinic this morning by older relatives, among them his grandparents, the coroner said.

 

Autopsy results were expected late today, the coroner said.

 

Another Vicksburg Warren School District student at Dana Road Elementary School, 6-year-old V’Shanti Washington, died Sunday from bacterial meningitis. She had been hospitalized at University Medical Center’s Blair E. Batson’s Children’s Hospital in Jackson since Friday.

 

Separately, the district reported today that 30 students in the 9,000-student district had been diagnosed by physicians with swine flu, which has been reported across the nation over the past three months. One death has been recorded in the state, in Jackson County on the Gulf Coast.

 

Huskey said Wesley had no symptoms related to meningitis or swine flu

[ANewMe]

Here's a link to a story about it that will be on news....

 

http://www2.wjtv.com/jtv/news/local/articl..._illness/17387/

 

Teen Dies From Sudden Illness

 

 

By Lorraine McBride

 

Published: August 27, 2009

 

A Vicksburg student has died.

An autopsy is being performed to determine what caused his death.

The warren county coroner tested 15-year-old Wesley Husband for Swine Flu and Meningitis.

Husband died Thursday (8/27) morning while at a waiting room clinic in Vicksburg.

The coroner says the teen was complaining of flu-like symptoms including a cough.

The news of this child’s death has many parents calling the school district.

The district has not closed down the any schools in the Warren County.

 

 

 

 

[S.K.]

if i did not homeschool mt kids this would be enough for me to pull them out and start

[Jori]

if i did not homeschool mt kids this would be enough for me to pull them out and start

 

DD, 2 1/2, was suspose to go back to dance class starting this week and start 2 year old preschool next week. I "missed" the sign up deadlines. I'm going to hit the basement of out office and get some of my teaching supplies and go to the teach supply store and pick up some supplies and start working with her myself. I have a friend that I let "borrow" some of my books and I never got them back so starting from stratch, again....

[Christy]

Homeschooling seems mighty appealing now to many folks who probably never thought about it.

But as long as anyone in the household goes out, there is risk of exposure.

 

Next week uni starts for DS. I actually fear that moment.

[gofish]

we had a home schooled 13 year old die of bacterial meningitis a year or two ago. one county south of here. he was in the school for 1 class. no other kids tested for it. DD1 was told that she needs a booster for the chicken poxs. now they are saying that you need 2 flu shots 3 weeks apart. no way!

[ANewMe]

http://vicksburgpost.com/articles/2009/08/...1b872931274.txt

 

Results of swine flu test in teen’s death expected today

 

 

By Pamela Hitchins and Steve Sanoski

Published:

Saturday, August 29, 2009 2:18 AM CDT

 

Results of a swine flu test in the death of a Warren Central High School freshman remained pending Friday night, but were expected today, Warren County Coroner Doug Huskey said.

 

The test was administered Friday by the Mississippi State Department of Health, and were not available Friday night, Huskey said. An autopsy performed Thursday on the body of 15-year-old Wesley Husband ruled out bacterial meningitis, which had caused the death of another Vicksburg Warren School District student, 6-year-old Vshanti Washington, earlier in the week.

 

Wesley, of 35 Round Alley, began to complain of not feeling well Aug. 21, said his grandfather, Wesley Brown. He was taken to a clinic Monday, and returned to school Tuesday. He also went to football practice that afternoon, but the family took him to River Region Medical Center’s emergency room Tuesday night. Wesley was treated for sinus drainage and given a prescription for Zyrtex, an antihistamine, said his aunt, Mary Wyatt. X-rays or lab tests were not done, Wyatt said.

 

Still not feeling well Wednesday, Wesley stayed home. Wyatt made an appointment for him to see a doctor at the Street Clinic Thursday morning.

 

On the way to the doctor, Wesley said he could not see and was very weak. He was taken in a wheelchair to a small examining room, where Wyatt said she became concerned that he was not breathing. She called clinic staffers, who placed Wesley on the floor and began “pushing on his chest. There was blood everywhere,” coming from his mouth and nose, she said.

 

Wesley died around 9:30 a.m. in a small waiting room detached from the main waiting area, his grandfather said.

 

Wesley was an athlete at Warren Central, well known for his love of football and basketball, said principal Rodney Smith.

 

“I knew from the kids and the coaches that he loved being out there,” Smith said.

 

The school did not receive many calls from parents Friday morning concerned about flu, he said. Warren Central reported about 30 to 40 more students absent than the usual 100 to 110, a district spokesman said. Attendance at other schools in the district appeared to be about normal.

 

The department of health has confirmed five swine flu cases in Warren County, but it does not attempt to track every case, said director of communications Liz Sharlot. According to the school district’s Web site Friday, a total of 27 students in 10 of the district’s 15 schools had confirmed cases of swine flu. Total district enrollment is 8,934.

 

Symptoms of H1N1 novel flu, commonly called swine flu, include fever, cough, sore throat, runny or stuffy nose, body aches, headache, chills and fatigue.

 

A number of people have also reported diarrhea and vomiting.

 

According to the state health department’s Web site, 499 cases of swine flu have been confirmed in Mississippi since May 15.

 

One death has been attributed to the disease, a 7-year-old Jackson County child. Health officials were looking into the possibility that a 13-year-old girl from Hancock County who died Thursday had swine flu.

 

Wesley is the second Warren Central student and the third in the VWSD to die since the school year began Aug. 4. Olivia McMillan, 15, was killed Aug. 7 when a tree fell on her home on Dusty Road.

 

 

 

First of all, it does not suprise me that our ER did little to nothing. Why they have not shut that hospital down I don't know. I could tell you stories that would make your head spin....

 

Anyway...the bleeding from the nose and mouth is terrifying to me. What could cause that??? I heard on Fri from one of the teachers I work with that it was thought he ruptured an atery while vomitting...that is bizarre. I don't buy it. Our Superintendent says they have contingency plans in place depending on the results of the autopsy. I have not heard any results as of tonight.

 

[blestmomof4]

The local news has not reported any cases of swine flu in our area but today my oldest dd was talking to someone we know that works at our local free clinic and she says we do have swine flu cases locally. One of the cases worked at a busy local cafe.

 

I homeschool my youngest and have the materials to homeschool the older ones if we need to.

 

Our local schools and officials sweep everything under the rug. We had a bomb threat at our school this last week and even the teachers weren't told. One of dd teachers/family friend was upset and told dd that the office had called her and told her to check her class room for anything out of place, strange, or different. They eventually had a fire drill and cleared the building. The next day the teachers told the students that in any emergency or other 'situation' they had been told that they were to take up all cell phones, that no phone calls or text messages can be made and if a student does text or call their parents they will be SUSPENDED.... that they don't need a bunch of parents up there when they are having to deal with a situation.

 

I will be up at the school this week to DISCUSS this with them.

 

BB

[ANewMe]

The next day the teachers told the students that in any emergency or other 'situation' they had been told that they were to take up all cell phones, that no phone calls or text messages can be made and if a student does text or call their parents they will be SUSPENDED.... that they don't need a bunch of parents up there when they are having to deal with a situation.

 

I will be up at the school this week to DISCUSS this with them.

 

BB

 

We have a code word that our Principal comes over the intercom and says. We know to then do a check....but let me share with you what we were told by law enforcement regarding cell phones and bomb threats.....

 

If we were to have a bomb threat we would evacuate and head to the stadium. Depending on the type of device...if a child used a cell phone it could actually detonate the device. That may be their reasoning...although we only found out that info when we had a cop as a guest speaker in one class....to my knowledge this is not common knowledge among faculty or students. Had I not known I would be the first one on the phone!!!

 

[gofish]

they do the fire drill here too. someone is calling in bomb threats at large places so they can rob drug stores across town . they will tell us the next day. If its real they don't want a lot of people jaming up roads.My friend who works in the school says you can tell something is going on, but they are not ready for something real. years ago a man went to where he works, 2 buildings over from where I work and started to shoot people. I don't think the city goverment learned from it, I keep praying for safty for our town.

[ANewMe]

So I found out today before this story hit the paper that he tested negative for Swine. My friend's husband is a funeral home director so she hears about these things pretty quickly. She told me when she heard from her husband this morning and they are both concerned. The CDC is supposedly getting involved now. Some people are speculating and throwing around theories which include TB....

 

So this is my thought process....you have a reasonably healthy 15 yr old boy who is very active in sports. Get's sick with flu like symptoms and gets progressively worst. Complains of being weak and problems seeing on his last trip to hospital and witnesses said that as they were performing CPR there was blood everywhere because he was bleeding for nose and mouth.

 

Do any of these symptoms strike a nerve with anyone....as you can imagine people are on edge. My friend took her 2 kids in today. The boy had flu-like symptoms, the girl just had stomach issues. She tested positive....he did not. She said the place was packed!!! She said she had never seen anything like it before.

 

 

 

http://vicksburgpost.com/articles/2009/08/...3a758649197.txt

 

Test shows swine flu did not kill local teen

 

State tests show swine flu was not the cause of death for 15-year-old Wesley Husband last week, but further tests by a federal lab could change that finding and will delay an official cause-of-death ruling,

 

By Pamela Hitchins

Published:

Monday, August 31, 2009 1:15 PM CDT

State tests show swine flu was not the cause of death for a 15-year-old Warren Central High School freshman last week, but further tests by a federal lab could change that finding and will delay an official cause-of-death ruling, Warren County Coroner Doug Huskey said today.

 

Wesley Husband, 35 Round Alley, died Thursday at the Street Clinic on McAuley Drive. Immediate tests ruled out bacterial meningitis, which had killed a 6-year-old Dana Road Elementary first-grader five days earlier.

 

Novel H1N1 swine flu test samples were sent to the Mississippi Department of Health, which found no traces of the virus but sent them on to the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta for more analysis.

 

Wesley first complained of not feeling well Aug. 21 and stayed home from school, said his grandfather, Wesley Brown. A family member took him to a clinic Monday, and Wesley returned to school and to football practice Tuesday. Tuesday night Wesley felt ill again and was taken to the emergency room at River Region Medical Center, Brown said.

 

Wesley’s aunt, Mary Wyatt, said the teen was treated for a sinus drainage and given a prescription for Zyrtec, an antihistamine. He stayed home from school again Wednesday, complaining of chest pain, and Wyatt took him to The Street Clinic Thursday.

 

She became alarmed because Wesley said on the way to the clinic that he could not see, was having trouble breathing and felt so weak he needed a wheelchair to go into the building. Once there, he seemed to slump over and stop breathing. She called attendants, who put Wesley on the floor and began “pushing on his chest,” she said.

 

Doctors were unable to revive him.

 

Preliminary autopsy results released Friday revealed symptoms of pneumonia, Huskey said, which is a common complication of influenza.

 

Five laboratory-confirmed cases of swine flu reveal that the virus is in Warren County, said Liz Sharlot, director of communications for the Mississippi Department of Health. Local physicians are no longer asked to send samples in for testing once the virus is confirmed in an area, she said. The health department does not attempt to track every case.

 

The Web site for Vicksburg Warren School District reports the number of students absent each day from reported swine flu illness. In recent days the number has hovered around 28. Cindy Nash, nurse administrator for the district, said today she is working to come up with an estimate of the total number of cases the district has seen since the beginning of school Aug. 4.

 

About five teachers have also had the flu, she said.

 

Today’s attendance reports were not available but Nash said schools were quiet with no unusual outbreaks of illness, from initial reports she had from school nurses.

 

Local doctors are using a rapid test to diagnose swine flu, Sharlot said. It’s reasonable to assume that doctor-reported cases are accurate because doctors are the ones treating individuals, and the H1N1 flu virus is the only one going around right now, she said.

 

The Dana Road first-grader who died of bacterial meningitis on Aug. 22 was V’Shanti Washington. It is a fast-moving disease that attacks the lining of the brain. If caught in time, it is treatable. Six of V’Shanti’s classmates were determined to have come in close enough contact with her to require treatment with antibiotics.

 

Symptoms of H1N1 novel flu include fever, cough, sore throat, runny or stuffy nose, body aches, headache, chills and fatigue. A significant number of people who have been infected with this virus also have reported diarrhea and vomiting.

 

A vaccine for swine flu is expected to become available in October. It will be administered separately from a vaccine for seasonal flu.

 

[nmchick]

I know it sounds wild, but the first thing it made me think of was ebola.

 

From

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ebola

 

Symptoms

 

The incubation period can range from 2 to 21 days but is generally 5–10 days.[39] Symptoms are varied and often appear suddenly. Initial symptoms include high fever (at least 38.8°C; 101.8°F), severe headache, muscle, joint, or abdominal pain, severe weakness, exhaustion, sore throat, nausea, dizziness, internal and external bleeding.[40] Before an outbreak is suspected, these early symptoms are easily mistaken for malaria, typhoid fever, dysentery, influenza, or various bacterial infections, which are all far more common and reliably less fatal.

 

Ebola may progress to cause more serious symptoms, such as diarrhea, dark or bloody feces, vomiting blood, red eyes due to distension and hemorrhage of sclerotic arterioles, petechia, maculopapular rash, and purpura. Other, secondary symptoms include hypotension (low blood pressure), hypovolemia, and tachycardia. The interior bleeding is caused by a reaction between the virus and the platelets that produces a chemical that will cut cell-size holes into the capillary walls.

 

On occasion, internal and external hemorrhage from orifices, such as the nose and mouth, may also occur, as well as from incompletely-healed injuries such as needle-puncture sites. Ebola virus can affect the levels of white blood cells and platelets, disrupting clotting. More than 50% of patients will develop some degree of hemorrhaging.

[The MacKinnon]

I'm just recalling some past incidents where athletes (teen/high school and a couple of college aged) collapsed and died after exercise or playing a game. It's a possibility he had an undiagnosed problem, like an aneurysm or enlarged heart. And there is a sad possibility he could have been taking illegal steroids or some other drugs and this was an end result. I'd rather believe that wasn't the case, but it happens.

 

And the one time I had occasion to help perform CPR on a drowning victim, I can tell you there was blood and other body fluids released. It was awful.

[Louis1]

I know it sounds wild, but the first thing it made me think of was ebola.

 

From

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ebola

 

Symptoms

 

The incubation period can range from 2 to 21 days but is generally 5–10 days.[39] Symptoms are varied and often appear suddenly. Initial symptoms include high fever (at least 38.8°C; 101.8°F), severe headache, muscle, joint, or abdominal pain, severe weakness, exhaustion, sore throat, nausea, dizziness, internal and external bleeding.[40] Before an outbreak is suspected, these early symptoms are easily mistaken for malaria, typhoid fever, dysentery, influenza, or various bacterial infections, which are all far more common and reliably less fatal.

 

Ebola may progress to cause more serious symptoms, such as diarrhea, dark or bloody feces, vomiting blood, red eyes due to distension and hemorrhage of sclerotic arterioles, petechia, maculopapular rash, and purpura. Other, secondary symptoms include hypotension (low blood pressure), hypovolemia, and tachycardia. The interior bleeding is caused by a reaction between the virus and the platelets that produces a chemical that will cut cell-size holes into the capillary walls.

 

On occasion, internal and external hemorrhage from orifices, such as the nose and mouth, may also occur, as well as from incompletely-healed injuries such as needle-puncture sites. Ebola virus can affect the levels of white blood cells and platelets, disrupting clotting. More than 50% of patients will develop some degree of hemorrhaging.

 

Ebola here would be a bad thing, definitely.

[TurtleMama]

Ebola or some other hemmoraghic fever was one of the first things that flitted through my mind, but I think that the liklihood of it is extremely (like, amazingly extremely) slim. I wouldn't put money on it, but extremely severe pneumonia can result in bronchial bleeding; if the doctors were performing CPR on the young man, the chest compressions -- which can sometimes be quite forceful -- could well have forced any bloody mucosal secretions through his mouth and nose. It must have been terribly frightening, both for that poor boy and for the people who were around him. I feel so terribly badly for him and his family. Hopefully the coroner will be able to determine what was wrong with him, if only to bring a small amount of understanding and peace to his family.

[ANewMe]

As of today everyone is still waiting to hear what the CDC and Feds say...I have heard nothing....and school rocks on.

 

My bestfriend works with a friend of the family and she said that the kids that he hung out with the weekend before getting sick are all very ill with one of them going to the ER. Nothing about this in the news. Guess we will wait and see....