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Swine Flu kills first Memphis teen.
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by ecknowledgy | September 8, 2009 at 08:56 am
1189 views | 0 Recommendations | 6 comments
A staff member at Le Bonheur Children's Medical Hospital said the city's first Swine Flu death, Michael Howse, an eighth grader from White Station Middle School,was kept alive several days by life support systems.The youth was emergency lifted to the facility from another local hospital on September 4th,but never stabilized. Organ failure began in the kidneys and progressed until heart failure occurred Monday.The informant said that 100's of mid- south children have been diagnosed with 2009 H1N1 and that some of the hospital personnel are visibly shaken.
On June 11, 2009, the World Health Organization (WHO) signaled that a pandemic of 2009 H1N1 flu was underway. This new virus is differs from the previous influenza carried byNorth American pigs. It has two genes from flu viruses that normally circulate in pigs in Europe and Asia and bird (avian) genes and human genes. Scientists call this a "quadruple reassortant" virus.
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Most RecentMost Recommended Comments (6)
at 13:40 on September 8th, 2009
It is scary, as White Station Middle School is not that far from our town, Germantown. The child was 13, a football star, and according to his peers, very popular and well-liked. Counselors will be on hand for the kids, and the teachers. My daughter is in Houston Middle School, which is also a feeder school to one of the high schools in the area.
Le Boneur Children's Hospital reputation for providing the best children's care is worrisome now to me, as I have a medically fragile child, who may exhibit initial symptoms, and, because of his adrenal insufficiency, be unable to fight the H1N1 virus, and die within hours. I am very concerned. The Shelby County School System is ill prepared to deal with this, as are the medical facilities in the area.
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lauren howland (not verified)at 16:40 on September 9th, 2009
im lauren a girl that goes to white station middle school. micheal was a great student and the football team when they have the game on friday at wsms school u will hear them saying at the end howse howse !! they want to let know that micheal will forever be with us .. we will miss u micheal !! and 1 last thing at our school today football track and cheerleaders whore the bows that said number 20 micheal will always be remember and the track and football layres wrote micheal is .......... and wrote a answer !!!!!! PRAY FOR MICHEAL HOWSE WE WILL MISS YOU !!!!!!!!!!!
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sapha iysheh (not verified)at 17:43 on September 9th, 2009
i was shocked when i found out that micheal had died i couldnt believe it miss u u will always be in my heart
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mz.lalahartz (not verified)at 19:09 on September 10th, 2009
i cant belive he died of all ppl he was a great person and didnt deserve to die and i fill bad for his family.
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aseal iysheh (not verified)at 15:22 on September 14th, 2009
I USE TO GO TO WHITE STATION MIDDLE SCHOOL.LAST YEAR WAS REALLY GREAT ESPECIALLY WITH THE BEST STAR FOOTBALL PLAYER MICHEAL HOWSE #20.HE WAS SUCH A GREAT PERSON AND DIDNT DESERVE TO DIE LIKE THAT .I MISS HIM AND THINK ABOUT WHAT LIFE WUD OF BEEN LIKE IF HE WUD OF SURVIVED.HE SUCH A GOOD PERSON.HE WAS THE BEST FOOTBALL PLAYER AT WHITE STATION MIDDLE AND HAD ALL A'S AND WAS SUCH A PROUD STUDENT.WE WILL MISS U MICHEAL AND WE WILL NEVER FORGET U .UR ALWAYS GOING TO BE WITH US.R.I.P MICHEAL HOWSE#20.WE <3 LOVE YOU!
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AnnanAmos (not verified)at 15:22 on September 16th, 2009
That is really a shame. I hope his family can feel some peace, as this is a tragedy. Hopefully, this is preceding a greater stockpile of Tamiflu or other medications in case of a serious outbreak. Even though they can tout statistics or wahtever else they like, it really doesn't diminish the impact of swine flu