For nearly 30 minutes a team of doctors and nurses worked on Leslie Creekmore, 29, as her blood pressure spiked and her body started to shut down, said Chris Creekmore, her husband. She died early Monday morning in a St. Louis hospital.
Leslie Creekmore of Fort Smith contracted the H1N1 flu strain in early January, her husband said. At the time she was healthy and pregnant with their first child and working at the Fort Smith Public Library as a children’s librarian.
A week later, on Jan. 11, she was admitted to a Fort Smith hospital. Within a couple of days she was placed in a drug-induced coma so a ventilator could be used to help her breathe. On Jan. 14 she was taken to Barnes Jewish Hospital in St. Louis, where she suffered a miscarriage.
Influenza deaths in Arkansas reached 41 Monday, said Kerry Krell, state Department of Health spokesman. The death toll is the third highest since at least 2000. During the 2012-13 flu season, 61 deaths were recorded, and the 2009-10 season saw 54 people die of flu-related illnesses, according to data released by the department.
Krell said flu-death statistics include people who reside in Arkansas even if they die in another state.
Chris Creekmore said early Monday that the exact cause of his wife’s death was still unknown. She was transferred to St. Louis for treatment that is not available in Fort Smith.
“She was the emphasis behind everything good in me,” Creekmore said. “She is the metric I judge the quality of a human being by. There is certainly no way to express the impact she has had on my life.”
Leslie Creekmore worked at the Fort Smith library for about 10 years, her husband said.
“She is one of those people whose only focus in life is to make sure that everyone is doing all right,” Creekmore said. “You obviously don’t get rich working there. She did it because she had the opportunity to do something for people.”
Gary Wheeler, branch chief of infectious disease at the Health Department, said it is possible that new flu cases in the state are beginning to decline this week. However, he said health officials are still processing data.
If the number of cases has peaked in the state, there still could be another six to eight weeks of flu season remaining, Wheeler said.
“It may very well be that we will see a doubling in the deaths before we are done,” he said.
Wheeler said deaths are typically underreported in the state and nationally, and it is estimated that nearly 20,000 people die from the flu nationally each year during the flu season, which typically runs from fall to early spring. He said that 100 to 200 Arkansans are believed to die during each flu season and that reports of deaths are most likely higher this year because reporting has increased.
Wheeler said there is still time to get a flu a shot.
The Creekmore family has been using Leslie Creekmore’s story for the past month to raise awareness about the importance of getting a flu shot. Her husband said he will continue that effort.
“Knowing that it was doing some good and that we had that type of support and care from people made a month full of very, very bad days a lot better,” he said.
Money raised by the public to help his wife through a long rehabilitation period will now be used to hold events promoting flu shots, Creekmore said.
“Leslie definitely would have appreciated some lasting good coming from that,” he said.
A Facebook site, Love for Leslie, had been used to update followers on her condition. The site is being followed by about 6,000 people from across the country. Family members posting updates on the site also encouraged people to get a flu shot.
Lisa Cook of Mebane, N.C., has followed Leslie Creekmore’s story since someone posted it on her Facebook feed.
“I clicked on it,” Cook said. “I just thought it was the saddest thing I ever heard. That is when I found the Love for Leslie page and started following it.”
Cook said she hasn’t had a flu shot in 15 years, but the story compelled her to get one along with her entire family. She said watching for updates on the young wife’s condition became a part of her daily routine.
“I would get up in the morning and grab the phone before I even got out of bed, just to see how she was doing today,” Cook said. She said a Facebook update from Chris Creekmore on Monday stating that his wife was “gone now” caused her to cry from heartbreak.
A report from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that flu cases remain elevated in the U.S. but that the number of new cases is beginning to show signs of slowing.
The report states that the H1N1 strain continues to be the primary virus causing illness in the country. During 2009, the last time the virus circulated, more young adults and children were affected than adults older than 65, it states.
“So far, more than 60 percent of the reported hospitalizations this season have been in people 18 to 64 years old,” the report says.
Jason McDonald, CDC spokesman for the National Center for Immunizations and Respiratory Diseases, said a 122-city reporting network is used by the agency to track flu activity such as hospitalizations and deaths.
The CDC does not keep national data on adult flu deaths, McDonald said. He said the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists sets guidelines on what should be reported by states. He said the council in 2004 made a recommendation that pediatric flu deaths be reported. Since then, the CDC has released a report on pediatric flu deaths, McDonald said.
McDonald said there could be some lag in the reporting of pediatric flu deaths to the CDC. At this time the agency is reporting 40 influenza-associated pediatric deaths this flu season. Arkansas is reporting three.
A weekly update by the World Health Organization states that the H1N1 strain is also being reported in China as flu cases begin to increase there. It also states that the flu season could be just starting in Europe. Influenza activity in the Southern Hemisphere and in hot-weather regions remain low.
Front Section, Pages 1 on 02/11/2014