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Teen's mother insists son died of swine flu

E-mail|Link|Comments () October 9, 2009 10:35 PM

By L.E. Crowley, Globe Correspondent

The mother of a Hingham teenager who died just after he arrived at college in Ohio is calling that state's health officials' pronouncement that her son did not die of the swine flu, "irresponsible."

Ohio health officials said this week that Matthew Healey, 18, who fell ill shortly after starting school at Miami University in Ohio, did not test positive for the H1N1, or swine flu, virus. But Healey’s mother insists her son did have swine flu, and the family wants to set the record straight.

“This is an incredibly painful thing we have gone through and what they’re saying is erroneous and irresponsible,” Elizabeth Healey said in an interview on Friday. “As far as we were concerned, it was a private, particularly painful family tragedy, and somewhere along the line our privacy was violated.’’

Commenting on the official cause of death, Healey said that acute respiratory failure explains one aspect of the illness, but does not accurately record the root cause.

“He did have H1N1,” Healey said. “To say he didn’t smacks of a cover-up.’’

The cause of death “matters because it is the truth,” Healey said. “It’s to honor Matthew’s memory and his life. To say he didn’t die of H1N1 is false.”

Brett Atkins, a spokesman with the Ohio Department of Health, said in a telephone interview Friday that he cannot comment specifically about Healey’s case because of privacy laws. But he confirmed that Healey’s death has not been reported as a swine flu death with the state or the federal Centers for Disease Control.

“Butler County has not had a second case of swine flu death,” Atkins said. The state's first lab-confirmed death, he said, occurred in the spring, before Healey began college.

Healey, an outwardly healthy and active young man, graduated from Thayer Academy in Braintree in the spring. He became ill shortly after arriving at the Miami University campus, which is in Butler County, and died on Sept. 26. According to media reports in Ohio, Healy’s death certificate lists the cause of death as acute respiratory failure syndrome.

Healey said the test taken when Matthew was first brought to the hospital showed a Type A influenza virus, which in the strain that public health officials consider the H1N1 swine flu virus. “Never, ever, ever in three weeks was it anything other than H1N1,” Healey said.

The latest comments from Ohio officials, Healey said, are based on a test that was taken weeks after Matthew had been in complete isolation. Everyone -- doctors, staff, and relatives -- knew the test would not show H1N1, Healey said. The only reason the test was taken was to prove the virus was no longer present, so hospital staff could remove protective face masks and eye shields when attending Matthew.

Healey said the family has contacted Ohio officials to clarify their comments and base their conclusions on the first test.

She said the family could file a lawsuit based on privacy laws, but what it wants is for the death to be reported as from H1N1. Then relatives can recede out of the public spotlight and grieve for their loss without having to clarify officials’ statements and field calls from reporters all over the country, she said.

“You can’t imagine what it has been like trying to deal with this loss and having to deal with all of this, too,” Healey said.