First Mexico fatal flu victim sought help for days

This is the story of the first fatality of the swine flu in Mexico...

reuters


MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - The 39-year-old woman who was the first to die in Mexico's swine flu epidemic spent the last eight days of her life going from clinic to clinic to find out what was wrong with her but doctors were baffled.

The woman, from the southern state of Oaxaca, died shortly after being admitted to hospital as an emergency case. Experts only identified the virus that killed her 10 days later.

The swine flu outbreak has killed as many as 159 people in Mexico, and forced the World Health Organisation on Wednesday to warn that a global flu pandemic is imminent.

The woman, who worked as a census taker in the city of Oaxaca, became ill with what was she thought was a severe case of pneumonia on April 4 but was not admitted to hospital until April 12.

"She went to several private clinics where she was given various diagnoses and various treatments. However, her condition worsened and she was taken to the hospital by emergency services on the 12th and the next day she died," Miguel Angel Lezana, Mexico's chief epidemiologist, told reporters.

That's terrible, while I don't know the state of the medical care down in Mexico, it sure looks like this woman tried her best to get some help, but being a new strain of the flu there isn't much that could have been done to save her.







[edit on 4/29/09 by SaveTheDrama]