Traverse City Record-Eagle

Grand Traverse County

November 25, 2009

Swine flu claims life of GT man

Health department director says victim had 'major' underlying health issues

BY ART BUKOWSKI

TRAVERSE CITY -- A Grand Traverse County resident died from swine flu complications, marking the county's first confirmed death from the disease.

A middle-age man died Saturday at Munson Medical Center, Grand Traverse County Health Department Director Fred Keeslar said. Keeslar wouldn't provide the victim's name or age, citing his department's confidentiality rules.

The victim had "major" underlying health issues that made him particularly susceptible to the flu, Keeslar said.

"It isn't just some guy walking down the street who died the next day," he said.

A Munson spokesman wouldn't provide information about the death, but said the incidence of swine flu at the hospital is declining enough to relax visitation rules.

Visitors 18 years old and under are now allowed in the hospital, and patients are allowed to have more than two visitors at the same time. Restrictions were put in place at the height of regional flu activity.

Munson spokesman Dale Killingbeck said the hospital doesn't have any swine flu cases right now, down from numbers ranging into the mid-teens a few weeks ago.

Since September, 47 people have died from the swine flu in Michigan. Dustin Robinson, 23, of Bellaire, was the region's first reported victim of the disease.

Robinson, a student at the Traverse Bay Area Intermediate School District Adult Work Center, died Nov. 18 at the University of Michigan Health System in Ann Arbor. He didn't have an underlying medical condition, family members said.

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