Uncounted US deaths that may be H1N1

Since the beginning of the H1N1 outbreak, I have wondered how many related deaths were being unreported in the US. My thoughts were along the lines of misdiagnosis, but after reading a post by ATS member ecoparity, I decided to look into "blanket terms" for cause of death, like natural causes in cases that seemed strange. The following articles are some that I decided fit one of two criteria; they were either geographically linked to a known hotspot for H1N1, or the age/health of the victim makes the story suspect. All of these cases are from this year, but some reports say this virus may have been around since last year.

post by member ecoparity

Pacifica High senior dies of natural causes

Ventura County medical examiners on Thursday had not yet determined exactly what killed Hector Anguiano, 17, of Oxnard.

Lubbock woman found dead in home

A 29-year-old white woman, whose name was not released, was found dead just after 6 p.m. by her boyfriend in the 4600 block of Belton Avenue, police officials said, in the bedroom of her home.

Child dies of natural causes

Police previously had been investigating the death of the child identified as Daekwon Brodie, but an autopsy report conducted this week determined he died of natural causes.

Officer found dead in home

Texas Rangers on Friday were investigating the death of a Madisonville police officer who was found dead at home after police said he did not show up for work the prior day.

Baseball player's wife found dead in home

Gabrielle Schoeneweis, 39, was found in her bedroom by the couple's 14-year-old daughter around noon, according to the Arizona Republic. She was unresponsive when Maricopa County sheriff's deputies arrived at 12:11 p.m.

Teen found dead in home

The body of Jose Cruz, who graduated from Canyon in 2008, was found Thursday in a residence in the 29000 block of Marilyn Street in Canyon Country.

This article also says that there was a second teen from the same school that died while jogging within the same week.

Queen's teen found dead in home

Ava Hecht, 17, was found facedown on the floor of her bedroom by her mother, Karen Gang, in the afternoon, according to a police report.

Ft. Hood soldier found dead in home

Spc. Crystal Joy Carney, 21, of Houston, was found unresponsive in a house on the post Sunday and was pronounced dead of unknown causes after emergency personnel arrived, according to a Fort Hood news release issued Thursday.
...
Three other soldiers have been found dead in their barracks this year — one in early January, one in late January and one in March — at the sprawling post that has about 52,000 troops.

Infant with pneumonia at daycare, later dies

A 4-month-old who was at a home daycare died after being rushed to the hospital Tuesday, possibly due to pneumonia.

I still believe that there are many more deaths that are being overlooked or just plain old hidden from the public.
In my opinion, the article concerning the troops from Ft. Hood is the most suspect, as there have been 5 total cases
this year alone. I would like any members that have suspicions of their own about a case to please post them here for discussion.

This is another soldier at Ft. Hood. It is from October 2008, so there may be no connection to H1N1. However, no one is certain when this virus first originated and October 2008 does fit into some theories. The article also mentions that there have been a string of deaths prior to this one.

Army officials are investigating how a 23-year-old soldier died in his Fort Hood barracks, the latest in a string of deaths at the Central Texas post the past two months.

Army investigates death at Ft. Hood

I would like any help understanding what might be happening to these soldiers. It could be suicide, but there have been no follow-ups to the investigations that I have found. I am trully concerned that these may have been some of the first flu victims.

Thank you for this thread- I, too, have wondered how many "mysterious" deaths have been flu-related in the US- and with CDC and WHO telling clinicians NOT to test for it, we have a serious problem in determining virulence.

Also, in reply to the Ft. Hood case, according to Reuters, 18 troops have tested positive in Kuwait (the point of rotation INTO the Iraqi theater), with an unknown number of others who have been exposed. Not surprising, as many military bases (like 29 Palms and Ft. Dix) have confirmed cases.

In 1918, the "patient zero" or index case was an army recruit on his way to Europe to fight in WWI. Military housing, prisons (like Riker's in NY, where there are confirmed cases) etc., are breeding grounds for infection- look at the TB rates in prisons all over the world.

My biggest concern abou the troops in the Middle East (apart from their safety) is that Egypt and other surroundin countries are battling H5N1- it's a hop, skip and a jump for the two to reassort. I hope quarantine holds and troops who were exposed to asymtpomatic, yet seropositive colleagues aren't mixing with the very environment that could drive mutations and catastrophic reassortment.

Here's one from my area being played off as a Drug Over-Dose?

Seems this one had done a lot of recent traveling and was from Canada?

I'll follow-up if anything comes of this...

Cause of death unknown for man found in vehicle
Friday, May 22, 2009
mlive.com

Jackson police are waiting on results of a toxicology test to determine what caused the death of a 24-year-old man whose body was found Tuesday in a vehicle.

And this...

Woman's unexplained death under investigation
May 5, 2009 at 6:15 PM
seattletimes.nwsource.com...

King County police are investigating the death of an unidentified woman whose body was reported about 2:30 p.m. Tuesday when it was brought to the Safeway store at 26th Avenue Southwest and Southwest Roxbury Street in Arbor Heights.

Hunts unexplained death victim is named
15:22 - 18 May 2009
huntspost.co.uk

THE identity of a man who died in unexplained circumstances at a home in Huntingdon has been revealed.

A spokesman for Cambridgeshire coroner's office said Scott Harvey, 34, formerly of Shelley Close, Huntingdon, was found dead at a house in Ambury Road at 2am on Tuesday, May 12.

Here's a Google News Search if anyone want's to spend time looking...
news.google.com...

[edit on 5/24/2009 by Hx3_1963]

wow, guys serioiusly.....just because someone died and they dont know why does NOT mean it was the swine flu, thats an extremely reaching thought process and just propagates more hysteria.

People die, its part of life. It could be something minute.

Case in point i had a friend that died because his diaphram stopped working due to a nerve going haywire.

had they not asked if he had had any isses before his death, it would have been unknown. You cant tell from a autopsy if the electrical impulses are working.

Point is, there are lots of things that go wrong, i think youre going a little far there.

[edit on 24-5-2009 by ManBehindTheMask]

Medical News Today

Just wait until people start dropping dead from the vaccination that's coming. The same folks that brought us killer pet food and toxic childrens toys (China) are mass making a Swine Flu vaccination.

And Obama says he is against 'selective' vaccinations ....


Be afraid. Be very afraid!

to CultureD: I agree that the cases on Military bases are very concerning for the same reason. Our soldiers are sent to some regions of the world that have very virulent virus that could hybridize with H1N1. Also, earliest and most active spots could help to point to the real origins of the virus. Have you found any follow up investigations to any of the military cases?

to Hx3: You are covering an angle I hadn't thought of: recent travel to affected areas. Star for you! The drug overdose is a believable COD, unless there were conflicting lab reports on the issue.

to ManBehindTheMask: These cases may absolutely be caused by something other than H1N1. That is the point of this thread. Hopefully we can discuss the cases and try to find a more likely cause of death than the virus. If not, then yes, swine flu will be just as likely as any other COD that leaves no trace on the bodies. Don't forget, that these articles will speak about age groups and/or areas that are already linked to the virus.

to FlyersFan: I usually am not dead set against vaccinations. My children have had all the required ones for school. In this case, though, I do feel there are too many unknowns to accept a vaccine. Unfortunately, I also feel we are not being told the whole story with this outbreak. In the early days of this virus, I was of the mindset that this was only an inevitable act of nature (like a hurricane), but as time moves on, there seems to be real concerted misinformation. I'm not quite buying into the depopulation theories yet, but an accidental release carries some good weight as a theory. So, I have my tinfoil hat out, just not on my head!

Great thread, posts. S&F all. (One was accidental.)

Keep up the great work guys. This is good stuff.

FLYERS FAN - I share your concerns about vaccines, and suspect that the whole theory is misinformed.

There seems to be alot of these unexplained deaths in the military. Some of these stories seem like it was a very
sudden and unexpected death.

Ft. Drum
Miramar
Ft. Richardson
Camp Pendleton
Ft. Hood

[edit on 24-5-2009 by Cameoii]

Here are the states represented by all of the cases I have previously listed. The first number is confirmed cases. The
second number is the ranking of amount of cases in the US. This information came from the CDC 5/22/09 update.
CA- 553 cases rank: 3
TX- 900 cases rank: 1
NY- 327 cases rank: 6
NC- 12 cases rank: 39
AZ- 520 cases rank: 4
AK- 3 cases rank: 46

AGE: 17
LOCATION: Ventura County, CA

AGE: 29
LOCATION: Lubbock, TX

AGE: 10
LOCATION: Pitt County, NC

AGE: 43
LOCATION: Madisonville, TX

AGE: 39
LOCATION: Maricopa County, AZ

AGE: 18
LOCATION: Los Angeles County, CA

AGE: 17
LOCATION: Queens, NY

AGE: 4 months
LOCATION: Pheonix, AZ

AGE: 23
LOCATION: Ft. Hood, TX

AGE: Unknown
LOCATION: Ft. Drum, NY

AGE: 21
LOCATION: Miramar, CA

AGE: 25
LOCATION: Ft. Richardson, AK

AGE: 19
LOCATION: Camp Pendleton, CA

AGE: 25
LOCATION: Ft. Hood, TX

reply to post by Cameoii


Cameoii:

I don't have any new info re: the troops who are deployed, except some vanilla CNN article that I won't insult your intelligence by posting- that says all soldiers are tested before they enter the combat theater- yet the Pentagon admitted they wre unaware if any troops who were exposed yet asymptomatic were able to mix with the Iraqi (or other) people in the Middle East. I'm hunting and will post anything substantive as I find it.

Obviously, though, with so many military bases infected stateside, we should begin to see infections spreading from the troops deployed from those bases- I expect that info to hit the news in a day or so. Will be in touch.

This is as much information as I have been able to collect on the Ft. Hood soldiers. Some recent deaths have been resolved to be due to other causes and I have left them out of this list. I have found several articles alluding to the fact that there were 9 suicides on base in 2008, but none of the cases listed below were said to be in those 9.

NAME Crystal Joy Carney
AGE 21
DATE 5/17/2009
HOME Houston, TX
ASSIGNED 289th Quartermaster, 15th Special Troops Battalion, 15th Sustainment Brigade, 13th Sustainment Command
STATUS pronounced dead of unknown causes

NAME Caleb Allen Bezanson
AGE 28
DATE 5/18/2009
HOME Ridgecrest, CA
ASSIGNED 3rd Brigade Special Troops Battalion, 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division
STATUS Officials are still investigating

NAME Kevin M. Marsh
AGE 41
DATE 1/1/2009
HOME Friedens, PA
ASSIGNED 2nd Battalion, 12th Cavalry Regiment, 4th Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division Rear-Detachment
STATUS was found dead the night of Jan. 1 by officers from his unit after a concerned call from a family member

NAME Scott Vickrey
AGE 23
DATE 9/28/2008
HOME Fayetteville, AK
ASSIGNED 3rd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division
STATUS His cause of death has not been determined.

NAME Travis Edward Dowd
AGE 22
DATE 8/12/2008
HOME Tallahassee, FL
ASSIGNED 1st Battalion, 5th Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division
STATUS Dowd was pronounced dead at the scene of an undetermined cause.

NAME Eric Jonathan McSherry
AGE 20
DATE 8/4/2008
HOME Webster, TX
ASSIGNED 48th Chemical Brigade, III Corps as a Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Specialist
STATUS Fort Hood officials declined to say exactly where or by whom he was found

NAME Donald James Scott Jr
AGE 28
DATE 7/29/2008
HOME Boyceville, WS
ASSIGNED Biomedical Equipment Specialist assigned to the 13th Sustainment Command (Expeditionary),
STATUS was found July 29 by a game warden in a training area, although his unit was not doing training exercises at the time, Fort Hood officials said

Fantastic post, Cam- thank you for the details. It's very interesting that nearly all (or all?) of the personnel were involved in biological or chemical divisions.

One could postulate that the military either already has a vaccine to H1N1 and it's killing people; there is a vaccine in development, and those tasked to work on it are catching the live strain and dyine; or base overcrowding and infection has caused their deaths. It's an unlikely pattern to be a coincidence, however if we assume it's just the infection making the rounds, as so many work in the biologics aspect of their units.

Thoughts?

Great post!

reply to post by CultureD


I honestly can't tell, by the information posted, if most of these soldiers were in biological or chemical divisions. Only the last two specifically say that. How would you find out?

In any case, what keeps bothering me about these deaths and many others listed in the beginning, is the seemingly instant death. One of the soldiers was just ordering flowers for a fiance', one was in a training area for some reason, and others had been checked on for missing one drill. If these people had been ill with the same strain of H1N1 we are seeing now, why were they not very ill for weeks? The only reasons I can come up with is either a vaccine, as you stated, or the very early strain killed much more quickly. If they are all in biological or chemical divisions, than I suppose it's possible for them to have worked on creating this bug and were afterwards threatening to go public, but that seems unlikely to me.

It may be interesting to look at the surrounding area to see how many of the early cases of confirmed H1N1 were nearby. I will check into that today.

ETA: Ft. Hood is in Bell county. There are no confirmed cases in that county or any bordering county except Williamson county on the South. In Williamson county there are 2 confirmed and 1 suspected case of infection. This information seems to rule out infection if the reported cases can be trusted.

[edit on 26-5-2009 by Cameoii]

While reading about the two newest deaths attributed to H1N1, I found the following quote:

Dr. Frieden said that autopsies in the two new deaths were pending, but said that laboratory testing had confirmed swine flu in both victims. “In these two cases, the deaths were not medically attended, and so the full history is not yet known,” he said. “They either died at home or could not be resuscitated when they were brought in.”

NY Times

This is exactly the type of thing I am looking for with this thread. My theory is that there are several other deaths that were not "medically attended" and were simply never tested for the virus.

My error in reading the areas in which the troops were working- I think I read the same two descriptions more than once, with tired eyes.!

Interesting that there aren't any surrounding infections- I'm going to dig around and see if I can find anything through the local affiliates...

Great thread and research! Thank you

This is supposed to be a weekly update from the CDC-

www.cdc.gov...

In the table it states 61 pediatric deaths. Isn't that a slight discrepancy from every other report?

reply to post by winotka


I think that table is including the infant deaths from all types of influenza. They don't break the 61 down into subgroups, so we would not be able to get a number for H1N1 deaths there. I do believe that the CDC is reporting all of it's "confirmed deaths". I just don't believe that they are testing all of the possible cases, which makes their number of deaths incorrect.

Here are a few more cases:

RUSSIA, N.Y. (WKTV) - State Police say that a fisherman reported missing was found dead, apparently of natural causes 5/25/09

Yzette Palacios, who was 22 months old, was pronounced dead early Sunday after being found unresponsive at her Posen home. 5/24/09
Posen

Wilco's Jay Bennett found dead. He was in the middle of recording another solo album in Champaign when he died over the weekend at age 45. 5/26/09
Champaign

Coroner Scott Rifleman says 19-year-old Andy Woods died of natural causes, which appeared to be the result of heart problems. 4/13/09
Andy Woods

Homicide detectives learned the man had been ill before he was found Wednesday morning in the park, Roberts said.

Las Vegas

A Seattle woman and another tourist died in Thailand- and according to the Thai gov, it was from food poisoning. An American doc did an autopsy and found her lungs 100% congested.


www.cnn.com...


I started a thread on it- any info you guys find would be welcome. I'm trying to find out more, but the family and the docs aren't talking beyond this, so far.