Re: Niagara County Student Death Linked to H1N1
[JimO, do you have 7 confirmed deaths for Erie County?.....This is new to me....]
A 10th-grade student at Niagara Wheatfield Senior High School died Monday night of complications from swine flu, the Niagara County Health Department confirmed Wednesday.
Also, a junior at Buffalo’s Hutchinson- Central Technical High School died in a local hospital overnight Tuesday. School officials declined to say if his death was related to swine flu.
The Niagara Wheatfield student’s death is the second confirmed in Niagara County from the swine flu virus. A middle-aged man from the eastern part of the county died last week.
In all, Erie County has seven confirmed swine flu deaths, four children and three adults, Health Department spokesman Kevin Montgomery said.
“Obviously, there’s a great sense of loss,” said Niagara Wheatfield Superintendent Carl Militello. “Grief counseling was available Tuesday and will be all week, and the district will provide transportation to the memorial service [today].”
The student was identified as Paul Nichiporuk, the youngest of Pavel and Lidiya Nichiporuk’s five children. The family had moved to Wheatfield about seven years ago from the Sweet Home School District, said Paul’s 27- year-old sister, Elena.
Paul turned 15 in July, liked being outdoors and playing video games, Elena said.
“He was a regular, typical teenager,” she said.
He spent two weeks and two days in Women & Children’s Hospital before the family decided to take him off life support, Elena said.
He initially had a fever of about 102 or 103 for about two days. His parents called the doctor’s office and were told to come back in 10 days if the fever didn’t break, she said.
When his father saw his son’s fever wasn’t going down, they took him to the hospital Oct. 30. He was admitted into the pediatric intensive-care unit about six hours after he arrived.
Things got worse for Paul over that first weekend, Elena said, and his health took a slow, downhill course.
She said her brother was put on a machine that would add oxygen to his blood. He was eventually diagnosed with Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, or MRSA.
Elena told The Buffalo News her brother’s initial test for H1N1 flu came out negative. It was not until the 11th day of his illness that doctors found out he really had a case of swine flu.
Little by little, Paul’s kidneys failed, his liver was failing, and his heart was weakening, doctors told the family. If he did recover, he would have to spend months or years on a respirator.
“It’s not a life that you would have wanted for him,” Elena said doctors told them, “or that he would have wanted for himself.”
Another brother, 21-year-old Sergey, said Paul liked to use his digital camera to take pictures in the backyard.
Paul’s 25-year-old brother, Gennadiy, serves in the Navy and Wednesday night was on his way back to the area from Chicago.
Services for Paul will be at 10 a. m. today in Amigone Funeral Home, 2600 Sheridan Drive, Town of Tonawanda.
Niagara Wheatfield officials have been meeting with the Health Department about setting up a flu clinic like the one set for Saturday at Starpoint, the first school clinic in the county.
Militello told the School Board at its Wednesday night meeting that he has talked about setting up a clinic for two days the week of Feb. 15 for those 5 to 18 years old. However, nothing has been scheduled yet.
Starpoint was chosen as the site for the county’s first vaccination clinic because its superintendent, C. Douglas Whalen, was the quickest to respond to the county’s overtures.
Erie County decided to move almost all of its vaccine to private health care providers. Montgomery said the Erie County Health Department won’t organize clinics until it’s satisfied that as many people as possible have been immunized privately.
But a national shortage of supply remains a factor, Montgomery said. The private providers have about 479,000 doses on back order, and the Health Department itself is awaiting another 43,000.
Niagara County has received about 8,000 doses of swine flu vaccine and is holding on to most of it for the school clinics and its own clinics. About 10 percent of the total has been sent to pediatricians, said Niagara County Health Department spokeswoman Elaine Roman.
The next school clinic in Niagara County is Dec. 11 at the Newfane Early Childhood Center. Lockport will come next, with tentative dates of Jan. 29-30.
Roman said the county is offering small daily vaccination clinics and has made vaccine available to some pediatricians.
Niagara County’s clinics are by appointment only at the Trott Access Center in Niagara Falls. The number to call is 278-1903.
http://www.buffalonews.com/cityregion/story/866785.html
