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Healey family disputes H1N1 findings

First-year Matthew Healey, of Hingham, Mass., died Sept. 26 in Cincinnati. Butler County health officials say H1N1 tests were negative.
First-year Matthew Healey, of Hingham, Mass., died Sept. 26 in Cincinnati. Butler County health officials say H1N1 tests were negative.

Austin Fast

First-year Matthew Healey, of Hingham, Mass., died Sept. 26 in Cincinnati. Butler County health officials say H1N1 tests were negative.

Although Ohio health officials reported Thursday that Miami University first-year Matthew Healey did not die of the H1N1 virus, Healey's family is contesting the results.

"Either people are incompetent, uninformed or they're trying to do something in the media," said Bob Healey, Matthew's father. "If you look at what happened to him physically and medically, it has swine flu written all over it."

Healey died Sept. 26 at University Hospital in Cincinnati. He was a resident of Morris Hall from Hingham, Mass. who became sick shortly after the start of the fall 2009 semester.

Miami University spokesperson Claire Wagner said officials from the Ohio and Butler County departments of health confirmed to Miami that test results were negative for H1N1. Wagner said the exact cause of death is unknown.

Butler County Health Department officials were unavailable for comment. Kristopher Weiss, spokesperson for the Ohio Department of Health, said Ohio's privacy laws prohibit him from discussing cases of specific patients, but he did confirm some Ohio cases of swine flu have been fatal.

"Sadly, we have had four deaths in the state of Ohio," Weiss said. "One each from Butler and Cuyahoga (counties) and two from Franklin."

Bob Healey said his son, Matthew, had two tests for H1N1: one when he was first hospitalized and another shortly before his death.

Matthew's first test came back positive for Type A influenza, which most physicians are assuming to be H1N1 since it is not seasonal flu season.

"They treated (Matthew) as if he had (H1N1) from the day of his admission," Bob Healey said. "I think it's uninformed, irresponsible and absolutely incorrect and inaccurate with his entire medical team calling it swine flu to say it wasn't swine flu."

Bob Healey acknowledged the H1N1 virus probably was not still active in Matthew's body at the time of death but challenged statements from Butler County Health Department Director Patricia Berg that swine flu was not the cause of death.

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"The (H1N1) test takes a week," Bob Healey said. "We're almost two weeks after Matt's death. It doesn't make any sense that this would be the first time we hear that it wasn't swine flu ... (Berg is) correct in the sense that she's talking about the second test. It was not active in his system at his death, but she's absolutely incorrect that he did not have H1N1."

Matthew was strong, active and healthy when he left for Miami, Healey said. He said toward the end of September Matthew's doctors were trying to support his organs as they healed from damage caused by the flu virus.

"This is a little bit like AIDS," Bob Healey said. "You don't die of AIDS. You die of kidney failure or of heart failure. It goes in and destroys the organs in your body. It's all related to the influenza that you've suffered."

Healey said he is "a little concerned" about the swine flu situation in Ohio and hopes health officials are not trying to lull Ohioans into a sense of false security. He has e-mailed Matthew's doctors and is waiting for their opinions on the cause of Matthew's death.


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