Dispute over the death of Hingham teenager

By L.E. Crowley, Town correspondent

Nearly two weeks after the death of Matthew Healey, a dispute is swirling over the illness that took his life.

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

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, 18, a 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.

In an interview Friday, Elizabeth Healey, Matthew’s mother, took issue with Ohio officials. “This is an incredibly painful thing we have gone through and what they’re saying is erroneous and irresponsible,” Healey said. “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.”

She 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 really wants is for the death to be reported for what it was--H1N1 swine flu. 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.

“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.

Thomas Skinner, a spokesman for the Centers for Disease Control, said it is not uncommon for flu deaths to be reported as something other than flu, such as respiratory failure or pneumonia.

"There are a lot of variables out there of what they are testing and reporting," Skinner said. He said there are “rapid” nasal swab tests that are taken at hospitals when a person is first brought in. Those tests are plagued with false positives and false negatives.

Days or weeks later, Skinner said, more specific and reliable tests could be taken, but the virus could disappear, depending on the passage of time or how the culture is stored while being transported to a lab.

“If there was an initial indication of a Type A influenza strain, you can bet it’s probably 2009 H1N1 influenza,” Skinner said.

In the end, Skinner said, the official cause of death is not what's important. “We know we have a virulent flu outbreak and it’s taking people’s lives,” he said.