Re: 3rd death in Saskatchewan
Father of Sask. girl, 6, who dies from H1N1 flu speaks out to save others
Published on October 27th, 2009
The Canadian Press
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<DL class=tags><DT>LA RONGE, Sask. - Hannah Dicks had been in and out of the hospital many times in her young life but she was a fighter until the H1N1 virus ravaged her tiny body.<DT><DT> <DT>Paul Dicks is still grieving his six-year-old daughter's death last July, but said he needs to speak out to put a face on the illness and hopefully save other lives.<DT><DT> <DT>?Maybe it's something nobody wants to hear, I don't know,? Dicks said Tuesday.</DT></DL>?But I would think it would be in everybody's best interest to hear the stories of the people that have this disaster and what the possible effects will be in the future.?
Hannah caught RSV - respiratory syncytial virus - and ended up in a coma when she was five weeks old. She recovered, but had a tremendous amount of sickness over the years. She couldn't walk or talk.
Despite all her suffering, the little girl proved to be surprisingly resilient.
?Even though she couldn't talk she could communicate with us, she learned how,? he said. ?Even though she couldn't walk, she was still mobile and got around.?
But in late June that changed when the girl was admitted to Royal
University Hospital in Saskatoon for osteoporosis treatment. A week later she died from H1N1.
Dicks said he never thought his daughter would die in hospital.
?There's nobody to blame for this. They did everything they can to prevent this but I think it caught us all a little bit off guard. It took no time,? he said.
?She was hit hard when she was young but she was a fighter. She went through I don't know how many intensive care visits where she was incubated various times and always came out of it. But the H1N1 virus took her down much, much faster causing her heart to actually stop.?
Saskatchewan has recorded five deaths associated with the swine flu. Health officials have said they all had serious underlying health conditions.
Dicks said it's impossible to process the fact that he took his daughter to the hospital for help and that's where she caught the virus that killed her.
?You come out of this sort of situation numb and you stay numb for a period of, good God, months and months and years probably. I don't know when the numbness stops,? he said.
?You'll never know why and you'll never be able to defeat the feeling that ... if I hadn't have taken her in this week for that (treatment) would this have been the same outcome? If we had went the week before would we have had the same outcome? I don't know.?
Dicks, a hotel manager, is now using his grief to help prevent the spread of H1N1.
He has put in place tough cleaning standards at the La Ronge Hotel and Suites. Tables in the restaurant remain clear until someone sits down so that drinking glasses or silverware aren't left in the open where someone could sneeze on them. Shower curtains in the hotel rooms are taken down and washed after each guest.
?I don't think anybody's going to win this war, maybe the (vaccine) will win the war,? he said.
?This is a battle that I have here and it's for the people of this community and people that come to visit this community. If I can make a difference and stop two people from getting H1N1, you know I've accomplished something in my life.?
It's all for the little girl who used to greet her daddy with a hug when he came home from work, the little girl that Dicks used to bathe every night.
?She was an amazing child,? Dicks said, choking back tears.
?When she was sick, she was hard, there was no question. Hard on her mother, hard on her father, hard on her sister. But when she was well, good God, she was amazing.?
http://www.mjtimes.sk.ca/News/Canad...ies_from_H1N1_flu_speaks_out_to_save_others/1
