For Smitty, Dana, Inez, Maise, John, Maddy, Bob, Frank, Francis, Lucy, Mary and Paul
It is sometimes difficult to pick up trends when half your resident population has Alzheimer's or a related dementia. They can't vocalize how they feel, and symptoms in the elderly are sometimes subtle or skewed.
And so it was with the influenza outbreak we've just had.
The other issue was the rapidity with which it struck. Virtually nothing one day, several cases the next, double the case load the third. And it kept going. The final outcome was a 90% attack rate for the residents, 30% for staff, consultants and volunteers. Forty x-ray documented pneumonias among residents, the real number probably closer to 60.
We'd taken the usual preventive measures - flu shots offered to everyone, even consultants. Pneumovax for the residents. And yet we saw temps up over 106, case after case of pneumonia.
The fact that everyone was already debilitated from a bout with Norwalk Virus in January didn't help. The elderly are so fragile, it doesn't take much. And for the twelve people above, all of whom were vaccinated for both flu and pneumococcal pneumonia, it took their lives.
All had given the staff and other residents something special. We will miss them.