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**alert** · December 10, 2009, 12:17 PM

Re: Unknown illness kills teacher, student in critical condition, possibly other students ill

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2278371/replies?c=5690

ANN ARBOR, Mich. (WZZM) - A mysterious illness is threatening the life of a 6 year old from Muskegon.

Just over a week ago, Zamarian Cooper?s mother says he was a happy, healthy 46 pound boy. Now, he weighs 21 pounds, is on a ventilator and under intensive care.

?He?s is just lying there,? says his mother, Keata Cooper. ?He is just lying there, fighting for his life.?

His family says no one can tell them what happened.

?He was a healthy little boy, never sick, never been in a hospital,? says his mother.

A week ago Monday, Zamarian?s family says he got sick at school. He?s been on a rapid descent ever since.

?I just need to know why,? his mother says.

At first, emergency room doctors thought Zamarian had the flu and sent the boy home. His mother brought him back when his temperature topped 105 degrees. Doctors decided the only place he could get proper care was Mott Children?s Hospital in Ann Arbor. But it was almost too late.

?Before they got on the helicopter it took eight minutes of CPR to bring him back,? says Emma Davis, the boy?s aunt.

?When we got here to Mott, they shut down the ICU because his heart stopped again,? says his mother.

The family says a team of doctors is now collaborating on the case, trying to cure the boy and solve the mystery for his mother.

?He was a healthy little boy and all of a sudden he got real sick and now he?s sitting up there on a ventilator,? says his mother. ?I need to know why this happened to my baby.

In their search for answers, Zamarian?s family wonders if the death of the boy?s elementary school teacher this weekend is in any way related to his illness. The Muskegon School District says the teacher had been in a long battle with lupus. The family says she was sick at school the same day Zamarian got ill, and she died within a week.

Zamarian remains in critical condition at Mott Children?s Hospital. The boy?s family the boy tested negative for H1N1.

Tonight on WZZM 13 News at 6pm Phil Dawson will talk to local officials about Zamarian?s condition and whether an investigation is underway to determine what caused his illness

**alert** · December 10, 2009, 12:19 PM

Re: Unknown illness kills teacher, student in critical condition, possibly other students ill

OK, apparently the child has recovered. With no autopsy on the teacher, this certainly sounds like it could have been H1N1. The symptoms are described as flu-like. And with the other ill students also being mild illnesses (we would have heard of additional severe cases by now), H1N1 seems probable.

I'm a little disappointed we missed this one as it was happening. Perhaps the thread should be renamed to indicate this happened a month ago.

404 Not Found | wzzm13.com

http://www.wzzm13.com/news/news_story.aspx?storyid=116138

Muskegon boy recovering from mystery illness
Phil Dawson Jessica Puchala Updated:11/27/2009 10:47:49 PM - Posted: 11/27/2009 10:34:40 PM Comments (10) Recommend (1)
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MUSKEGON, Mich. (WZZM)- His family says the mystery illness that nearly killed 6-year old Zamarian Cooper is still unidentified but the child is now home from the hospital.

"I'm just blessed, that's what it is," says his mother Keata Cooper. "Blessed that he came out of it."

A month ago doctors at Mott Children's Hospital in Ann Arbor warned the family 6-year old Zamarian might not survive.

"He couldn't talk, or move or do anything," says his mother.

"I think they must have had every machine in the hospital on him," says grandmother Bonnie Davis.

But Zamarian surprised everyone by making it home by Thanksgiving.

"We weren't going to give up on him," says his mother. "There is a lot of stuff we still have to work on with him but he's been doing good."

Zamarian became deathly ill on October 26, the day after his kindergarten teacher, Margaret McCreary, went home sick from school. She died 4 days later. It's assumed she succumbed to Lupus, a disease she had battled for years.

But the Cooper family wonders if the disease that infected Zamarian is related to the sudden death of his teacher.

"We are not clear on that and they didn't do an autopsy so we don't know," says his mother.

"They don't know what she died from," says his grandmother. "They didn't do an autopsy."

It would be up to the Muskegon County Health Department and the Muskegon County Medical Examiner to investigate a possible relationship between the death of the teacher and the illness that nearly killed her student.

"But I'm all right with it now," says Keata Cooper. "My son is here so I'm okay. My focus isn't on that teacher any more. My focus is on him."

"He's going to get better," says his grandmother. "We are going to help him get better."

By Phil Dawson

**Emily** · December 11, 2009, 05:17 AM

Re: Unknown illness kills teacher, student in critical condition, possibly other students ill

I just ran across this story while searching for news about the problems in Pakistan. It was on a forum with news about that.

This is a strange story, (and the cases reported in the comments on the news article are disturbing), but glad the boy recovered.

**alert** · December 11, 2009, 11:55 AM

Re: Unknown illness kills teacher, student in critical condition, possibly other students ill

That's where I found it too. I don't know how we missed it in early November as it happened.

But this almost has to be H1N1, as there were several milder cases linked to this (the ones in the comments threads), and no further linked severe cases. As far as I can tell, no one even tested the dead teacher (her death was presumed due to the lupus), and the student might have tested negative due to late sampling (he was apparently turned away from medical care once before he was admitted - "he only had the flu"). Or perhaps the doctors errantly excluded H1N1 based on a rapid test.

What is amazing about this is how little press coverage this got. All we got was two articles at the start of this, and one three weeks later daying the child recovered. We didn't even detect this at FT until a month after it started. This is very similar to the Matt and Mindy McIntosh case (undiagnosed illness, one death, second critically ill, etc.) which generated a 110+ post FT thread in July. Perhaps in the past four months since that happened the country has unfortunately gotten used to healthy people dying suddenly...

I think we need to change the title of this thread (to reduce the scare factor - indicate that the story is a month old, the child recovered, that the other cases were mild, that H1N1 is possible), but I can't even imagine what the correct title of this thread should be. A little help here moderators?