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POSTED: Saturday, Oct. 17, 2009

County residents hit by swine flu urge others to get vaccine

Bellingham fire chief's friend dies, son becomes seriously ill

BELLINGHAM - Concerned that the public may not be serious about the health threat posed by swine flu, some affected by the illness are stepping forward to urge greater caution and encourage people to get the vaccine.

They include Bill Boyd, chief of Bellingham Fire Department and one of the people heading a countywide coalition responding to the pandemic locally.

Boyd's friend, whom he had known since high school, died recently after contracting what also is being called H1N1, and Boyd's son Tyler, a 22-year-old Seattle resident, is battling the flu and complications caused by secondary infections.

"It's nothing to mess with is the message I'm trying to get across," said Boyd, noting that the flu is especially hard on pregnant women and young children.

Others trying to get the message out are Jan Polinkus and daughter Vonda Polinkus, an emergency room nurse at St. Joseph Hospital who is still recuperating five months after a visit to a walk-in clinic marked the start of the fight to save her life.

"It very nearly killed her. It was the scariest time of our lives," said Birch Bay-area resident Jan Polinkus of her daughter's battle against swine flu.

Boyd, pointing to reports of college students holding swine flu parties to catch the virus, said he hoped people would take the flu seriously after hearing about his friend and his son.

Boyd's friend Bob Bryan, a special agent for the Navy Criminal Investigative Service who was a technical consultant for the TV show "NCIS," died Sept. 21.

Bryan, who was otherwise healthy, was sickened by swine flu, then contracted the secondary infection of pneumonia that killed him at age 50.

"That was sobering," Boyd said.

About three weeks ago, Boyd's son contracted swine flu and had a "roaring fever that got up to 104." He also had a bad headache, chills, achy joints and was extremely tired. He went to the University of Washington's Medical Center and was given two liters of IV fluid because he was dehydrated.

It would be the first of two visits to the hospital for Tyler Boyd, who also had to fight pneumonia, a staph infection and a heart infection.

"He's pretty sick. I think he's going to be OK, but I'm going to go down there and make sure he's OK," Bill Boyd said earlier this week.

Tyler Boyd returned to his job as a project engineer Thursday, Oct. 15, and worked half a day. "He's really whooped," his father said.

An IV line feeds antibiotics directly to his infected heart, and will do so for six weeks.

Had the swine flu vaccine been available before he was sickened, Boyd said his son, who was active and healthy before contracting the H1N1 virus, would've gotten it.

Earlier this month, a small shipment of 2,000 doses of the vaccine in its nasal form was sent to Whatcom County and distributed to priority groups that included medical workers and medics.

Five vaccine clinics for priority groups begin next week. The vaccine is expected to be available to everyone else by mid- to late-November, including Boyd, who isn't in the priority list laid out by the federal government.

Get the vaccine if you can, advised Vonda Polinkus, who was hospitalized after contracting the swine flu in the spring.

"I would definitely advocate (for it) because I almost didn't come out of the hospital," the Everson resident said.

She was hospitalized May 24 to July 2, after going to a walk-in clinic for cough syrup because she couldn't get rid of a bad cough.

Health care workers took one look at her and called 911.

Polinkus, 33, said she didn't realize she had the flu because she didn't have any other symptoms, including nausea, vomiting or fever.

At St. Joseph Hospital, doctors struggled to save her life as her condition worsened and her lungs failed. They intubated her and put Polinkus, who'd had asthma her whole life, on a ventilator after her lungs started collapsing.

She was on a ventilator for 19 days, and doctors conducted numerous tests trying to figure out what was wrong.

Initial tests sent into the state lab came back negative for the H1N1 virus. But a biopsy of her lung that was sent to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention came back positive for the swine flu.

She had been in the hospital for 46 days when she was notified by the CDC, Polinkus said.

By then, the flu was long gone.

On Thursday, Oct. 15, Polinkus said she was doing well. She was not yet back at work but wanted to be soon. Her pulmonologist said it would take six months to a year for her lungs to heal.

And now both Polinkus and her mother encourage people to get immunized against swine flu.

"Maybe if people knew, at least in this instance, what happened, they would treat swine flu with a great deal more caution. It can devastate lungs," Jan Polinkus said.

Does Jan Polinkus plan on getting the swine flu vaccine when it becomes available to her?

"Great God, yes," she said.

MORE ON SWINE FLU

Symptoms of the H1N1 flu include fever, cough, sore throat, runny or stuffy nose, body aches, headache, chills and fatigue. Some people may have reported vomiting and diarrhea. Some have had respiratory symptoms without a fever.

Learn more by going to em.whatcomcounty.org.