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Policeman's wife twice wrongly diagnosed with swine flu dies
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by Babel-Fish | August 20, 2009 at 08:53 pm
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A senior policeman's wife died 'in terrible circumstances' from Legionnaires' disease after her symptoms were twice 'mistaken' for swine flu.
Carol Rowe, 46 was told she had swine flu by an ambulance crew who 'refused' to take her to hospital twice after emergency calls.
Her furious husband, Detective Inspector Kevin Rowe of Thames Valley Police, said she died in 'terrible circumstances' after paramedics told the mother-of-two she was 'panicking'.
Mrs Rowe, who had lung problems after suffering from TB three years ago, as well as asthma, rang for an ambulance after feeling severely unwell.
Det Insp Row, 46, from Thatcham, Berkshire, said that on the first visit the ambulance service made a diagnosis of swine flu and refused to take her to hospital.
This is a big problem that its some times hard to tell the difference from flu and other illness with similar sypmtoms, when a panademic is declared of course it becomes the first thought of the day when sypmtoms are diagnosed.
I have just got over a mould spore infection that gave every indiocation of being H1N1 or H1N5 and if both my partner and I had carried on thinking we had flu, the spores could of killed one or both of us. As the mould in question was the deadliest variety and well hidden from view.
Just like the symptoms caused by mould spores
[q URL = "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legionnaires%27_disease#Symptoms"] Patients with Legionnaires' disease usually have fever, chills, and a cough, which may be dry or may produce sputum. Some patients also have muscle aches, headache, tiredness, loss of appetite, loss of coordination (ataxia), and occasionally diarrhea and vomiting. Laboratory tests may show that patients’ renal functions, liver functions and electrolytes are deranged, including hyponatremia. Chest X-rays often show pneumonia with bi-basal consolidation. It is difficult to distinguish Legionnaires' disease from other types of pneumonia by symptoms or radiologic findings alone; other tests are required for diagnosis.
Persons with Pontiac fever experience fever and muscle aches without pneumonia. They generally recover in 2 to 5 days without treatment.
The time between the patient's exposure to the bacterium and the onset of illness for Legionnaires' disease is 2 to 10 days; for Pontiac fever, it is shorter, generally a few hours to 2 days [/q]
Does in fact look familiar to flu. however the loss of appetite is not really a symptom of flu.
But Tamiflu would have been a useless cure for Legionnaires disease
The amblance crew and the hospital had thought she had swine flu, because that was the norm to espect unfortunatly. How can we blame them fate had played this poor woman a very bad hand Kevin Rowe has a right to be annoyed but with luckless fate, my heart goes out to him and his family for their loss. Some times life is so unfair and in this case the over hyped H1N1 flue scam has been the causes of demise.
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at 21:00 on August 20th, 2009
Wrong diagnostics due to the flu pandemic scam, fate played a very bad hand
at 21:44 on August 20th, 2009
The deceased woman had complicating pre-existing medical problems that increased the likelihood that she would die from H1N1, if that had been what she had, and so she should have been hospitalized and monitored. Refusing to transport her to a hospital was similar to refusing to transport a pregnant woman to the hospital, in spite of the recognized extra risk of death in pregnant women.
If H1N1 has become so common that all respiratory problems are confused with H1N1 then that's a very serios problem. If this ambulance practice has become standard practice, then it means that little or no differential diagnosis is going on.
I would expect that the husband will be filing a wrongful death action against the ambulance crew, their superiors and the owner of the ambulance company, as well as the medical personnel at the hospital who failed to ask enough questions to properly size up the danger the patient was in, or failed to properly analyze the data they had.
The ambulance company and crew may have some immunity if they were operated by government.or part of a religious or charitable hospital.
It seems like a likely legal argument that, by agreeing to appear at the scene, the ambulance companies assumed a legal duty to properly evaluate the woman and to, if appropriate, transfer her to the hospital. By agreeing to appear at the scene, the ambulance companies robbed the husband of critical moments he could have used to transport his wife himself, had he known that the ambulance companies would refuse help after superficial assessments.
I suspect this will end up in court, where the sympathetic policeman husband, and now a single father, will argue that this case involved much more than bad luck; it involved actionably negligent medical care.
at 23:01 on August 20th, 2009
The ambulances services are run by the government as with all emergency services. The paramedics should have asked the right questions however they do not always get the right answers concerning pass medical history.
I am not sure what the present policy in UK is on patients that have had prior TB problems or that suffer from asthma, of course I agree all this should of been taken into a account, that she should of been taken to hospital.
The problem is that it seems there is orders that H1N1 sufferers are not to be taken to hospital by ambulance crews, the symptoms are the same for both infections. However the British government know that H1N1 is weaker than the normal flue. At a bet the ambulance crews are following a government directive.
I agree the husband has reason to take the matter to court and at the end of the day it will be the ambulance crew that will be blamed and not those giving the orders. I still thing a bad hand was dealt and this hyped H1N1 flu panic as led to a patient dying where normally the ambulance crew would of taken her to hospital where there would of been a better chance of a correct diagnoses. We must remember that Legionnaires disease has a more lethal chance of killing those infected than the worst infection of flu. She would of had a very low chance of survival unfortunately due to those other underlying health problems.
At a bet ambulance crews are being intimidated with calls from flu victims daily because of the hype that has stupidly been imposed by the British government. many many people think H1N1 will kill them.
If I was the husband I would be very annoyed with the health authority minister and the government for issuing directive that allows such mistakes being made.
Now that there is an out break concerning a real epidemic problem of which Legionnaires disease is the British government and the health authorities will have to ensure all victims with such flu like symptoms go to hospital as Legionnaires disease is a real killer. It can do havoc if it gets into a mall air con or ventilation system etc. The government got a real health problem on its hands it could even be a pandemic within a pandemic. They have even got to rethink on the Swine flu hotline.
They can not say take Tamiflu and you will feel better, Legionnaires disease symptoms are too damn similar. This really puts the spanner in the works of the Tamiflu scam.
at 00:57 on August 21st, 2009
When I had 'Swine Flu', we were given some basic questions, but they where not detailled, including my previous history (in fact I had to bring it up). Often when ambulances ring to ask for information they just want basic information too. Do ambulance workers have access to medical history or not? If they knew what they were getting into, perhaps this would have changed things, though of course, it could be time consuming.
at 01:12 on August 21st, 2009
I am not sure that they have access to medical histories in UK, having been out of the country so long. Is such data on line now days or still kept in the filing system of ones local doctor? I do know doctors are sensitive about patients data and keep it away from the scrutiny of others, to protect the patients.
at 04:40 on August 21st, 2009
Ambulances cannot refuse service, in Canada anyways.
at 17:28 on August 21st, 2009
That should be the policy everywhere and if the ambulance was deemed to be un-required then the fuel costs should be billed to the offending patient. That would of meant in this case the woman would of reached hospital for a chance of being diagnosed properly. .