Man died from H1N1
Posted By RON GRECH, THE DAILY PRESS
Posted 2 months ago
H1N1 was the cause of death for a local man who died about two weeks ago at Sudbury Regional Hospital, the Porcupine Health Unit confirmed yesterday.
That confirmation came as a result of an autopsy.
"It was an H1N1-related death," Gary Schelling, spokesman for the Porcupine Health Unit, said yesterday. "That was the cause but we're fairly confident there were other underlying conditions because the initial report on him seemed to indicate there were a couple of things going on" in terms of other health issues.
"Beyond that, we haven't received anything but the death notice at this point."
This marks the second confirmed case of a person from Cochrane District dying from this flu strain. Up to now, there had been only one confirmed death in Timmins directly attributed to H1N1. That was of 15-year-old O'Gorman High School student Justin Bouvier who died last month.
Schelling confirmed the adult male who died in Sudbury was not from Timmins but somewhere within the jurisdiction of the Porcupine Health Unit.
Neither the name of the deceased nor the community he's from has been released.
Schelling said that information has been withheld for "reasons of confidentiality." To release that information, Schelling said, they would require authorization from the family or the family's physician.
Sudbury Regional Hospital notified the Porcupine Health Unit of the death, following a standard medical protocol for reportable infectious diseases.
If a person who dies is found to have had a reportable disease, the hospital providing care is required to notify the health unit from where that person resides.
The exception to that rule is if the patient is a First Nation person.
In that circumstance, the hospital would be required to contact Health Canada. instead.
The fact the Sudbury hospital notified the Porcupine Health Unit in this instance, indicates the man who died recently was not Native.
