Calgary woman in coma due to H1N1 complications

[Pathfinder]

Calgary woman in coma due to H1N1 complications

Global TV Calgary: Wednesday, November 11, 2009 3:58 PM
Rob Pearce wonders why he was able to get over the flu with ease, while his fianc? Jacyln fights for her life in a medically induced coma.


CALGARY - It?s one of the most troubling aspects of the H1N1 outbreak; why some people get severely ill, while others recover from mild symptoms.

A young Calgary woman is fighting for her life in ICU, even though she had no pre-existing medical conditions.

Twenty-seven year-old Jaclyn Bates was a healthy young woman up until a couple of weeks ago. Jaclyn and her fianc? Rob had both been down with the flu, but while Rob began to feel better, Jaclyn?s fever became something far more serious very quickly.

?Within a couple of days, we decided we should go see a doctor. He told me we needed to take Jaclyn to the H1N1 clinic right away?, says Rob.

The couple waited three hours at the H1N1 assessment centre. By the time they were seen by a nurse, Jacyln was so ill she had to be rushed to hospital. That night, doctors told Rob his fianc?e had pneumonia associated with H1N1, and she was extremely sick.

The next day, her condition had deteriorated further.

?I went in to see the doctor, and they basically told me that she was very, very, very sick; she had severe pneumonia and there was a chance she may not live. At that point, I was beside myself?.

Rob spent the night at the hospital as Jacyln **** on, but by the morning, the stunned family received another blow. Because Rob had a slight cough, he, along with Jacyln?s children RJ and Adrianna, were no longer permitted to see her for at least 10 days and were put on preventative doses of Tamiflu. Jaclyn was put into a medically induced coma.

?She exercises every day, she takes care of herself better than I do. She just went from being perfectly healthy to ridiculously sick in a very short period of time, and the doctor?s aren?t even sure why that is.?

There are studies underway frantically trying to discover why some react to the virus in such a severe manner, while others experience only mild discomfort. Rob was contacted by researchers just days ago, asking questions Rob himself would like to know the answer to.

Jacyln is now improving, and doctors plan to try and wake her in the next few days. Jaclyn is not considered high risk, and if healthy, would not quality for the H1N1 vaccine at this time.

http://www.globaltvcalgary.com/Calgary+woman+coma+H1N1+complications/2212035/story.html

[Pathfinder]

Re: Calgary woman in coma due to H1N1 complications

Calgary mom's H1N1 struggle reveals toll of deadly flu

'They told me.. . prepare for the worst'

Deborah Tetley, Heather Yourex And David Wylie, Calgary Herald

Published: Thursday, November 12, 2009

CALGARY - One week after complete respiratory failure prompted doctors to put 27-year-old Jaclyn Bates into a medically induced coma while she battled H1N1 flu, the Calgary mother of two young children is slowly waking up.

Her fiance, who just days ago was told by health officials to prepare for the chance Bates might die, called it a miracle.

"She's not coherent and she can't respond to commands from the nurses yet, but that's expected," said Rob Pearce, 25, who has lived with the fear of losing Bates since she was diagnosed with swine flu last Wednesday.

"It's going to be a slow recovery so they are telling me to be patient, but she is slowly waking up."

In only a few days, Bates went from the picture of health to a medically induced coma after being diagnosed with the H1N1 flu.

"It's been a long, long battle," said Pearce. "At one point they told me it could go either way and to prepare for the worst. Doctors let me know she was very, very sick and there is a chance she might not live."

The fast deterioration of the Calgary mother was shocking, said Pearce.

"She's the epitome of health," Pearce said. "She just went from being perfectly healthy to ridiculously sick in a very short period of time and the doctors aren't even sure why."

Pearce said doctors at Rockyview General Hospital put Bates in an induced coma last Wednesday because she couldn't breathe on her own and doctors wanted to control her lung functions. "She had complete respiratory failure."

His fiancee has slowly improved while in the coma and is starting to breathe on her own again, but remains on a ventilator.
Citing privacy laws, a spokesman for Alberta Health Services said Wednesday he couldn't comment on Bates's case.

More than 600 Albertans -- including 231 in Calgary--have been hospitalized with confirmed cases of the H1N1 flu virus since April, according to Alberta Health and Wellness. Authorities say there are about 100 people in intensive care units across the province due to the virus, comprising one-third of all ICU patients.

The province has recorded 29 H1N1 deaths, including nine in the past week. The Public Health Agency of Canada has reported 135 deaths nationally.

Today and on Friday, vaccine clinics will expand to include more high-risk individuals, according to Alberta Health Services.

Today, people with chronic conditions aged 55 to 64 as of Nov. 1 will be added to the list, as will people with chronic conditions aged 10 to 17.On
Friday people with chronic conditions aged 45 to 54 will be added.
Previously announced high-risk groups continue to be eligible.

Officials began Oct. 26 to immunize high-priority Canadians, including pregnant women, children under five years old and people under age 65 with chronic conditions. Clinics were immediately swamped with people who waited in line for their shots.

Though rare, other Canadians have also been put into medically induced comas after being diagnosed with H1N1. Cases include a 41-year-old Nanaimo, B.C., man who was placed in an induced coma after his kidneys shut down, and a 23-year-old Montreal woman who died after being put into an induced coma after giving birth to her son in June.

Bates's ordeal began with a fever on Halloween weekend, Pearce said. For several days she controlled it with Advil, but had no energy.

Pearce was also sick, wheezing and coughing and the couple was having trouble taking care of their children, five-month-old son RJ, and daughter Adrianna, 10. They asked Pearce's parents to watch the infant.

The couple, who have been dating nearly three years and are planning to be married in Banff next September, went to their family doctor.

"They told us to get to the H1N1 assessment clinic right away," said Pearce. They waited at the clinic for three hours, while Bates struggled with a violent cough and sat in a wheelchair, because she was too weak to stand on her own.

Alberta Health Services opened an influenza assessment centre on Oct. 30 to stem the tide of flu sufferers seeking medical assistance after Calgary hospital emergency rooms were swamped.

The assessment centre, at the Richmond Road Diagnostic&Treatment Centre, 1820 Richmond Rd. S.W., is open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., seven days a week. It is staffed by doctors and nurses prepared to treat patients who have influenza-like symptoms and require medical attention.

After three hours at the assessment clinic, Bates was diagnosed with pneumonia and transferred to Rockyview. Later that day Pearce brought Bates's daughter to the hospital to visit her mom. That's when nurses told him his fiancee possibly had H1N1 and that she would be kept in hospital overnight.

Hours later hospital staff called again to tell Pearce that Bates had suffered respiratory failure.

He rushed to the hospital.

"They basically told me that she was very, very, very sick, she has severe pneumonia and there's a chance that she may not live," he said. "At that point, I was beside myself."

He called Bates's parents, Val and John, and they rushed to their daughter's side. Bates stayed at the hospital overnight, but the next day, last Wednesday, Pearce was barred from visiting her.

"That's when they told me that she was H1N1 positive," Pearce said. "I had a slight cough and they told me I could no longer see her and I'd have to go see my doctor and go on Tamiflu and it would be at least 10 days before I could see her.

"I want to be with her, but right now they tell me the best thing I can do is get healthy and take care of my kids." He will get to visit her once again on Friday.

He said he's stunned at how powerful the virus can be.

"It's extremely serious and what's scary is no one seems to know exactly how it works and why it picks healthy people," said Pearce.

"It's not like the normal flu."

http://www.chtv.com/ch/chcanews/story.html?id=2213973

[Pathfinder]

Re: Calgary woman in coma due to H1N1 complications

Comatose mom with severe H1N1 on the mend: fiance

Deborah Tetley, Heather Yourex and David Wylie, Calgary Herald, Canwest News Service: Friday, November 13, 2009 10:35 AM

CALGARY ? One week after complete respiratory failure prompted doctors to put Jaclyn Bates, 27, into a medically induced coma while she battled the H1N1 flu, the Calgary mother of two young children appears to be slowly recovering.

"She's improving," Rob Pearce, Bates' fiance, said Thursday. "That's the most important thing. Hopefully she does wake up by tomorrow (Friday).

"She hasn't woken up yet. They had to put her back on sedatives Wednesday night . . . she was agitated."

Pearce, who just days ago was told by health officials to prepare for the chance Bates might die, called her condition a miracle.

"It's going to be a slow recovery so they are telling me to be patient."

The fast deterioration of the Calgary mother was shocking, said Pearce.

"She's the epitome of health," he said. "She just went from being perfectly healthy to ridiculously sick in a very short period of time and the doctors aren't even sure why."

Pearce said doctors at Rockyview General Hospital put Bates in an induced coma on Nov. 4 because she couldn't breathe on her own and doctors wanted to control her lung functions. "She had complete respiratory failure."

Bates has slowly improved while in the coma and is starting to breathe on her own again, but remains on a ventilator..

Citing privacy laws, a spokesman for Alberta Health Services said he couldn't comment on the case.

Though rare, other Canadians have also been put into medically induced comas after being diagnosed with H1N1. Cases include a Nanaimo, B.C., man, 41, who was placed in an induced coma after his kidneys shut down, and a Montreal woman, 23, who died after being put into an induced coma after giving birth to a son in June.

The Public Health Agency of Canada has reported 161 H1N1 deaths nationally.

Video link:

http://www.globaltvcalgary.com/health/Comatose+with+severe+H1N1+mend+fiance/2219857/story.html

[Pathfinder]

Re: Calgary woman in coma due to H1N1 complications

Calgary mother hit hard by 'evil flu' returns home


By Deborah Tetley, with files from Michelle Lang, Calgary Herald, Calgary Herald;November 20, 2009



<SCRIPT type=text/javascript> function resizeImage() { var imgBox = document.getElementById('imageBox'); var photo = document.getElementById('storyphoto'); if (imgBox != null && photo != null) { if(photo.width >= 460) { imgBox.className = 'imagesize460'; } else { if(photo.width >= 300) { imgBox.className = 'imagesize310'; } else { imgBox.className = 'imageboxpadding'; } imgBox.style.width = photo.width + 'px'; } } } function getStoryFontSize() { var storyfontsize = getCookie('storyfontsize'); var storyfontimage = getCookie('storyfontimage'); // use cookied value, if present if (storyfontsize != null) { setClass('story_content',storyfontsize); if (storyfontimage != null) { setClass('fontsizecontainer',storyfontimage); } } else // default it to para14 if no cookie { setClass('story_content','para14'); setClass('fontsizecontainer','size02'); } } function setStoryFontSize(storyfontsize,storyfontimage) { setClass('story_content',storyfontsize); setClass('fontsizecontainer',storyfontimage); setCookie('storyfontsize', storyfontsize, '365', '/', '', ''); setCookie('storyfontimage', storyfontimage, '365', '/', '', ''); } function setCookie( name, value, expires, path, domain, secure ) { // set time var today = new Date(); today.setTime( today.getTime() ); if ( expires ) { expires = expires * 1000 * 60 * 60 * 24; //days } var expires_date = new Date( today.getTime() + (expires) ); document.cookie = name + "=" + escape( value ) + ( ( expires ) ? ";expires=" + expires_date.toGMTString() : "" ) + ( ( path ) ? ";path=" + path : "" ) + ( ( domain ) ? ";domain=" + domain : "" ) + ( ( secure ) ? ";secure" : "" ); } function getCookie( check_name ) { // split this cookie up into name/value pairs var a_all_cookies = document.cookie.split( ';' ); var a_temp_cookie = ''; var cookie_name = ''; var cookie_value = ''; var b_cookie_found = false; // set boolean t/f default f for ( i = 0; i < a_all_cookies.length; i++ ) { // split apart each name=value pair a_temp_cookie = a_all_cookies[i].split( '=' ); // and trim left/right whitespace while we're at it cookie_name = a_temp_cookie[0].replace(/^\s+|\s+$/g, ''); // if the extracted name matches passed check_name if ( cookie_name == check_name ) { b_cookie_found = true; // we need to handle case where cookie has no value but exists (no = sign, that is): if ( a_temp_cookie.length > 1 ) { cookie_value = unescape( a_temp_cookie[1].replace(/^\s+|\s+$/g, '') ); } // note that in cases where cookie is initialized but no value, null is returned return cookie_value; break; } a_temp_cookie = null; cookie_name = ''; } if ( !b_cookie_found ) { return null; } } </SCRIPT>

Rob Pearce wonders why he was able to get over the flu with ease, while his fianc? Jacyln fights for her life in a medically induced coma.


CALGARY - It sounds like her entire body is rattling each time she lets out another deep, raspy cough, and taking the stairs is a struggle, but Jaclyn Bates is on the mend.

Two weeks after being diagnosed with the H1N1 flu virus, and rushed to intensive care with respiratory failure, the mother of two is back at home with her family.

She still needs to master walking and doing simple tasks such as climbing stairs.

"I am 27 years old and I had to learn how to walk all over again," said Bates, whose doctors put her in a medically induced coma for about a week earlier this month while her body fought off swine flu.

"At first (hospital staff) gave me a walker and I was wobbly and felt like I didn't know what to do," she said. "My body just didn't have the energy to move."

Bates says her road to recovery will be long and frustrating, but she's grateful. "It's going to be another month or two until I'm 100 per cent, but I'm alive."

The debilitating symptoms and after-effects of H1N1 are nothing Bates paid much attention to prior to contracting the virus, she said, adding she wondered if media stories and health reports were overblown.

Now, more needs to be done to convince people to get vaccinated and find ways to protect themselves and their families, she said.

"This whole experience has been scarier than I imagined. It's an evil flu.

Before I got it I didn't realize how serious it was. I wasn't even going to get the vaccine. Now I think the government should make it mandatory."

As of Thursday, H1N1 has hospitalized more than 1,000 Albertans and the new virus strain is linked to 45 deaths in this province.

Experts say this pandemic flu differs from the seasonal variety in several ways, including its ability to seriously sicken young patients.

Typically, the flu causes serious illness in the very young and the very old.

During this pandemic, the median age of Alberta's hospitalized H1N1 cases has been 34 years old.

"Young people say flu doesn't make you that sick," said Dr. Anand Kumar, an intensive care physician with the Winnipeg Regional Health Authority.

"This is an entirely different flu. The old rules don't apply anymore."

For the most part, H1N1 is causing mild illness. But Kumar said in a small number of cases young people are developing a serious disease.

"(It can cause)a viral pneumonia in both lungs that's very severe and can get incredibly bad if it's not treated early," said Kumar.

In Bates' case, her condition was touch and go for a while.

"I was in a coma for eight days and when I woke up I found out that doctors had told my family I might not make it through the night," said Bates, who has a 10-year-old daughter and a five-month-old son.

Bates and her fiance, Rob Pearce, are planning to get married in Banff next September after three years together.

Their ordeal began with Bates suffering from high fever on Halloween weekend and in a few days she went from the picture of health to breathing from a respirator in the intensive care unit at Rockyview General Hospital.

She had pneumonia and H1N1.Doctors put her in a comatose state so they could control her breathing.

Last Friday, Bates began the slow awakening from her medically induced coma.

On Thursday physicians decided she was strong enough to leave hospital, although she is walking with a cane for support.

She is also wearing a mask to ensure she doesn't infect anyone else with H1N1.

http://www.calgaryherald.com/health/Calgary+mother+hard+evil+returns+home/2243431/story.html