By Brian D. Crecente, Rocky Mountain News
December 6, 2003
Janelle Portillis clung to 20- month-old Diego, his tiny frame lost in a yellow hospital gown and his face covered with a mask, sad blue eyes staring into space.
Brian Huckabay, Portillis' husband, shook his head and talked Friday about the flu death of Diego's twin brother, Dezmond.
"It happened so quickly," he said. "It went from Sunday them being perfectly healthy to Wednesday one being dead and the other being in the ER. That virus, it's out there, and it's not done."
On Thanksgiving, Diego and Dezmond Huckabay were fine - happy 20-month-olds eating turkey and pumpkin pie at their Pueblo home.
During the weekend, the twins spent time with their grandparents and went to a friend's birthday party.
On Monday, Dezmond got sick. Diego followed the next day.
But the parents weren't worried - both boys had had their flu shots, and a doctor's visit ended with a prescription.
Early Wednesday, however, the twins got worse, and the family rushed them to the emergency room, where they were prescribed more medication and sent home.
Later that morning, their grandmother found Diego wheezing in his bed and Dezmond dead.
"She ran into my room and said, 'He ain't breathing. He ain't breathing. He's cold,' " Portillis said.
Diego was rushed to a Pueblo hospital, where doctors found his throat constricted and his lungs shutting down. They decided to fly him to Children's Hospital in Denver.
"I went crazy," Portillis said. "I don't know how to explain. I've never felt that way before."
Diego is recovering at Children's, but the family says he knows his brother is gone.
"He's going to be alone -- that's going to be so hard for him," Huckabay said. "Every time someone comes into the room, he looks and he doesn't see his brother. He doesn't see him."
Diego lay quietly in his mother's arms, one hand pressed to his mask-covered face, eyes searching.
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/dr... 0.html
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12-08-2003 01:22 PM
CanadaSue
Scrawny news freak
Registered: May 2001
Location: Kingston, Ontario, Canada
Posts: 7116
This may be the week...
...where many more states begin reporting large numbers of cases - both in kids & adults. It's over a week, almost a week & a half since Thansgiving so areas that may not have been seeing a lot of flu or any, for that matter, may not be seeing travel related cases. There's also been time, if you take last Monday as the first "spread the joy" day since the holiday, for 3 generations of spread to have occured after Thansgiving.
Fox 68 news last night from Syracuse said Oswego County in New York is out of shots 7 encouraged people to phone around - some neighbouring counties are doing clinics early this week. Apparently at the end of the week, what flu shots are left in the system will be redistributed to areas of most need. I suspect there will be nothing left anywhere by Wednesday, Thursday at the latest.
And from CNN:
http://www.cnn.com/2003/HEALTH/12/08/flu.ap/index.html
***Doctors take action on flu shot shortage
Monday, December 8, 2003 Posted: 7:14 AM EST (1214 GMT)
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