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Flu contributes to Fairborn woman’s death

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By Anthony Gottschlich, Staff Writer Updated 10:04 PM Friday, November 6, 2009

FAIRBORN — A Fairborn woman died from the flu last week, possibly from the H1N1 virus, her family said Friday, Nov. 6.

Pam Cummins, 51, an otherwise healthy person, died Oct. 30, four days after entering Miami Valley Hospital in a disoriented state suffering from flu-like symptoms, her daughter, Melissa Campbell, said.

The family figured Cummins would outlive each of her 11 brothers and sisters, her daughter said.

“She never once drank in her life, never did drugs and didn’t smoke,” Campbell said Friday, two days after burying her mother in Byron Cemetery. “She didn’t even cuss.”

Cummins’ death certificate lists flu as a contributing cause of death, as was a cerebral infarction or a stroke, according to the Montgomery County Vital Statistics Bureau with Public Health — Dayton and Montgomery County.

Early tests at the hospital didn’t reveal a stroke — the brain damage came later, Campbell said, and that’s why the family blames the flu, likely H1N1, as the major cause.

“It’s just awful to see someone at 51 — that’s not old at all — die like that,” Campbell said. “She probably had 30 or 40 years ahead of her.”

Miami Valley Hospital officials declined comment on Cummins’ death, citing patient privacy laws.

“Any death is painful and an unexpected death more so,” spokeswoman Nancy Thickel said. “Our thoughts and prayers are with this family during this difficult time.”

According to Campbell, tests confirming H1N1 are pending with the Ohio Department of Health.

“I don’t want people to freak out or anything, but the right bug at the right time can get the healthiest person down,” she said. “People need to watch for that, and I don’t mean rush to the ER, but make an appointment with their doctor.”

Campbell said other than high blood pressure, her mother was a healthy person who enjoyed life, her grandchildren and being a student at Sinclair Community College, where the former General Motors Moraine truck plant worker studied computer information technology.

Cummins also is survived by numerous family members, including her husband of 32 years, John; children Christina and Shawn Cummins; three grandchildren; and her parents, Mary and Don Cotterman.

Campbell said her mother had felt like the flu was coming on, but she followed conventional advice and stayed home to nurse herself back to health. When she became confused and disoriented, her family called an ambulance.

If positive, Cummins would be the second person from Greene County to die of the virus, said ODH spokesman Kristopher Weiss, who could not divulge the identity of the earlier Greene County victim.

Not all H1N1-related deaths are reported to ODH, Weiss said, but 22 have been reported so far, including one from Warren County.

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