Re: Insidious H1N1 propaganda in Column One of the LA Times today

[Guest guest]

That's what we call propaganda...

It shows how important it is to read between the lines :

" Although she was overweight, she was healthy " - When you are overweight, you

are rarely healthy...

" Over the next few weeks, doctors diagnosed pneumonia and gave her

antibiotics and the antiviral drug Tamiflu. " - In other words, they overloaded

and weakened her immune system, which was already trying to get rid of toxins...

" We gave her everything; it just got worse and worse, " - They gave her

everything, which probably means tons and tons of drugs... No surprise she got

worse...

How sad. This woman is another victim of the health care system. Not a victim of

H1N1.

Marieve

>

> http://tinyurl.com/yfcmvny

>

> A family left behind by the H1N1 virus

>

> Virginia Romo was pregnant with her sixth child when she caught the

> swine flu. Her husband and children, raising the baby on their own,

> are still stunned at how swiftly the disease took her from them.

>

> By Shari Roan

>

> February 8, 2010

>

>

>

> On a rainy January day, Romo, 15, feeds her five younger

> brothers and sisters an early dinner and tidies the kitchen while

> waiting for her father to return from work. One of the children

> vacuums the living room, maneuvering around a large box of diapers.

> Another sibling holds the baby.

>

> When the father, , arrives home, he's carrying a couple of bags

> of groceries, enough for a day or two. He rubs his youngest son's

> head affectionately, and pulls the infant into his arms.

>

> He seems bewildered by the turn his life has taken. " I miss my wife

> very much, " says , a quiet man who speaks halting English.

> Looking around the cramped living room, he adds: " She was half my life. "

>

> Just inside the door of the two-bedroom, second-floor Santa

> Anaapartment sits a tabletop shrine crowded with devotional candles.

> The candles depict Our Lady of Guadalupe and the Sacred Heart of

> Jesus; dried roses droop in a vase. It pays forlorn but faithful

> tribute to Virginia Romo, the wife and mother who died in July at age

> 38.

>

> The cause of death was pneumonia, believed to have been a

> complication of the H1N1 virus she caught last spring at the dawn of

> the outbreak. One of about 11,000 swine flu deaths nationwide, Romo's

> in many ways typifies the pandemic. She was young, poor, pregnant and

> Latina.

>

> " She was always so healthy, " says , 40, who is now raising six

> children -- ages 15 years to 7 months -- on his own. " I don't know

> what happened. I don't understand. "

>

> He gestures to the apartment's homey living room, decorated with

> elaborate draperies, framed paintings and religious icons. " Virginia

> did everything for us, " he says. " She was always so happy. "

>

> As health officials begin to tally the score card from the 2009

> pandemic, some facts are becoming clear. The virus was not as lethal

> as feared; most of the 55 million cases in the U.S. were mild. Nor

> did it primarily fell the elderly and infants, as most flu viruses

> do. Instead, swine flu targeted younger adults, with the majority of

> deaths among people ages 18 to 64.

>

> It saved its worst for pregnant women.

>

> They have been hospitalized at four times the rate of the general

> population and have died at six times the average rate, according to

> various estimates. In a study of 63 pregnant women in California who

> were hospitalized with H1N1 between April 23 and Aug. 11,61 were so

> sick they were placed in intensive care. Seventeen died.

>

> " The deaths among pregnant women are devastating. This is supposed to

> be a great time in their lives. Then the mom dies and the baby

> survives, " says Dr. Janice Louie, chief of the influenza and

> respiratory diseases section of the California Department of Public

> Health. She was author of a study, published in January in the New

> England Journal of Medicine, analyzing the effects of H1N1 on

> pregnant and postpartum women in California.

>

> In many of the lethal cases in pregnant women, the illness struck

> swiftly, leaving families and widowed husbands in shock. Six months

> after his wife's death, still sees reminders of her

> everywhere. Her prenatal vitamins sit on the kitchen counter.

>

> He manages to care for the children, though he works weekdays at a

> factory that makes tortilla machines and recently resumed three

> evening shifts a week as a busboy at a Newport Landing restaurant. A

> friend of Virginia's who lives with the family cares for the baby,

> the 5-year-old twins and her own two children until comes home

> from school. When the friend leaves for her job, is in charge

> until returns.

>

> " I used to work five or six nights at the restaurant, but now I have

> to watch the babies, " says as the twins pester him to go out

> for doughnuts. " My older daughters have to go to school, and they

> have homework to do. "

>

> It's been hard to explain to the twins what has happened, he says.

>

> " At first, I told them their mother was in Mexico. Now, I'm trying to

> explain it to them, little by little. I tell them, she's with God in

> the sky. But they still say, 'Where's Mama?' "

>

> A sticker on the door to the family's apartment reads, " Este Hogar es

> Catolico. " This home is Catholic.This home is Catholic. Devoted to

> their faith, and Virginia welcomed every child as a gift from

> God.

>

> They met as children in the village of San el Alto in Jalisco,

> Mexico. was born there. The family moved to Santa Ana where

> a, 14; Cristian, 12; and 5-year-old twins Giovanni and Yareli

> were born. In late 2008, Virginia became pregnant again.

>

> For most of her pregnancy, Virginia felt fine. Although she was

> overweight, she was healthy; she had even quit smoking. Then, in the

> late spring, she came down with what appeared to be a bad cold. In

> mid-June, her cough turned nasty. She complained of chest and back

> pain. She often lay in bed all day with the lights off instead of

> bustling around the apartment cleaning. Normally unfazed by the noise

> in a home with five kids, she asked to keep the children quiet.

>

> She had obtained regular prenatal care with Medi-Cal insurance, and

> she made a few visits to a physician about her respiratory symptoms.

> She soon began to complain of shortness of breath. On July 3, one

> month before the baby was due, Virginia's condition worsened.

>

> " When I got home, my daughter told me to take Virginia to the

> hospital, " recalls. " Virginia was scared. She said she

> couldn't breathe. "

>

> The couple went to Western Medical Center in Santa Ana, and Virginia

> was admitted at 2 a.m. on July 4, about six weeks after her first

> symptoms and about 10 days after they became severe. The doctor noted

> the symptoms on the admission summary: coughing up yellow sputum,

> fever of 101, shortness of breath. A chest X-ray showed lung congestion.

>

> Doctors gave her oxygen and IV fluids and began to run tests.

>

> 'I'm sure this was H1N1, " says Virginia's obstetrician, Dr. Su,

> of Santa Ana. " H1N1 had just come around. We didn't know which group

> of people it would hit. It's not like the typical flu. Every year, we

> have pregnant patients with flu and bronchitis and coughs and colds.

> They don't usually die. "

>

> Early on July 5, got a call from the hospital. " They said,

> 'Can you be here in 10 minutes? We have to do surgery right away,' "

> recalls. He rushed to the hospital. Virginia had gone into

> acute respiratory distress. The baby was delivered in an emergency

> caesarean section, a few weeks premature but at 5 pounds, 8 ounces

> otherwise healthy. Virginia was intubated and taken to intensive care.

>

> " These women are so sick, a lot of them have to be delivered in the

> ICU, " Louie said of the H1N1 pregnancy cases. " As the fetus grows, it

> pushes up on the lungs, and a pregnant woman has less room to expand.

> This predisposes them to not being able to cough as well. "

>

> Hormones and the immune system also change during pregnancy, which

> makes it harder for pregnant women like Virginia to fight infection.

> Further, statistics released earlier this month by the state

> Department of Public Health show that in California, Latinos have

> been twice as likely as whites to die from H1N1, in part because they

> have less access to healthcare and are more likely to have other

> chronic health problems or wait longer to seek help.

>

> Virginia was rarely conscious after being admitted to the hospital.

> Over the next few weeks, doctors diagnosed pneumonia and gave her

> antibiotics and the antiviral drug Tamiflu, which is recommended for

> H1N1 treatment in pregnant women as well as other patients. She had

> aggressive lung treatments and was placed in a bed that could be

> rotated to turn her upside down, creating more room in her lungs and

> allowing mucus to dislodge.

>

> " We gave her everything; it just got worse and worse, " Su says. " The

> lung tissue was just shot. "

>

> Several mornings a week, would drop off at the hospital

> and she would spend the day at her mother's bedside.

>

> " It was so hard to see her there. I would talk to her and just hope

> she would be listening to me, " says. " I would tell her, 'The

> baby is fine; just get better.' "

>

> Virginia died alone early on July 22.

>

> Six days later, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

> issued its first bulletin alerting doctors to an increased risk of

> complications among pregnant women with H1N1.

>

> The baby -- Virginia -- is beautiful. Everyone says so. She's a good

> baby, says. She only fusses a little now and then because she's

> teething. The children vie for turns holding her.

>

> recalls how thrilled her mother was at the prospect of another

> child. She has resolved to make sure her baby sister knows this.

>

> " When she took the pregnancy test, she was so happy, " recalls.

> " She said it was probably her last baby because of her age. "

>

> As she waits for her father on this rainy day, sweeps rice and

> Froot Loops off the plates, washes them and places them in the dish

> rack. She opens the door and yells to the younger children to stay

> out of the street. It's sunset, the showers have stopped, and food

> vending trucks selling tortillas and candy are lining up at the curb.

>

> A good athlete, had wanted to play softball after school this

> spring, but now that's not possible. She still manages to get good

> marks in her 10th-grade classes and loves science and math.

>

> Someday, she says, she would like to be a midwife.

>

> shari.roan@...

>