CORPUS CHRISTI — Swine flu was partly to blame for the death of a 33-year-old Corpus Christi man, the fifth such death in the U.S., officials said.
Carlos Garnica died May 6 of viral pneumonia at Northwest Regional Hospital in the Calallen area, local health officials said Friday.
Hypothyroidism, hypertensive cardiomegaly, sleep apnea, morbid obesity and influenza A, sub-type H1N1 — also known as swine flu — were contributing factors in Garnica’s death, according to a report released Friday by the county medical examiner’s office.
Dr. William Burgin, health authority of the Corpus Christi-Nueces County Public Health District, said Garnica’s multiple health conditions likely made it difficult for him to fight off the flu.

CORPUS CHRISTI — “Yes” was the last word Melissa Ann Cantu said to her husband nearly two weeks ago as she gasped for breath and agreed to go onto a ventilator after she was stricken with the swine flu.“We both just cried,” Abram Cantu said.
The 31-year-old pediatrician’s office manager and mother of two died about 11:30 p.m. Monday at Christus Spohn Hospital South.
She is the second person in Nueces County to die as a result of contracting the H1N1 virus. There have been 128 confirmed cases in the county, health officials said.
“We’re in shock from how fast this went,” her husband said. “She has never had health problems before, and has been such a fighter, but her lungs couldn’t fight off the viral pneumonia and swine flu virus.
“Half my heart is gone now,” he said. “The other half now has to be concentrated on my kids.”
The couple had been married about seven years and have two children, Brittany Nicole Aguilar, 12, and A.J. Cantu, which is short for Abram Junior, 3. She also helped raise her husband’s sister, Rebecca Maria Gonzalez, 18, from age 12, after their mother died.Cantu had body aches the day before leaving on a trip with her husband and two children, said Dr. Luisa Lira, her employer.
The 1996 graduate of Ray High School was with her family in San Antonio, after a day at Schlitterbahn in New Braunfels, when her symptoms escalated.
She went on rides at the water park on July 18, and she and her husband went to dinner before she started coughing and got a headache.
“She kept saying she was fine, and even went shopping at the mall,” her husband said.
They returned to Corpus Christi the next day and then she stayed in bed the rest of the day. Her husband asked if she wanted to go to a clinic, she said no.
“I believed she knew what was best,” he said.
In the morning, she sought medical help, he said.
After X-rays, she was hospitalized...

CORPUS CHRISTI — A woman in her 40s who was diagnosed with the H1N1 virus died about 10:30 p.m. Wednesday in an intensive care unit of a Christus Spohn Hospital Memorial, health officials confirmed.
It’s the third death locally related to the virus also known as swine flu and the second this month. The woman had been hospitalized for more than a week, said Dr. William Burgin, health authority for the Corpus Christi-Nueces County Health DistrictShe had pre-existing health problems — chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and lung disease — that contributed to her death, he said. She was on a ventilator..

superdad and prove all things did you read the corpus christi paper? if you would have read that the 2 people that died within 10 days here had prior health issues or did nothing about it and ignored the symptoms.
read the stories

i agree i was all worried about it when i knew nothing but i live in corpus and my son goes to TMISD where the swine flu was spreading like a wild fire. his dr told me if i would have waited 12 more hours it would have been worse but i took him in because honestly i thought it was alergies and i thought he had a sinus infection because he had a runny nose, cough and sneezing bad. he came home friday at 3 from school complaining of not feeling good and went to bed at 4 and woke up at 10 am the next morning. by sunday morning he had a 104.3 fever and said this can not wait till monday. all in all if you feel like you have symptoms get your ass or your child to the dr your body will not fight this off on its own. they treat it like the regular flu in the beginning but if you wait to long u will find your self in the hospital. Its not as bad as everyone is putting it out there to be my son started his meds sunday and by the end of monday he felt alot better and wanted to go back to school. i feel better knowing what i know now and if i would have known what i do now i wouldnt have spazzzzed out so much. just wash your hands or carry a hand sanatizer and do it regular. TMISD had over 170 cases of the swine flu and they were all treated and back at school.

You both have not done your reasearch. If you go the Center for Disease control you will see over 36,000 people die from the the regular flu every year in the U.S. Only 1800 died world wide from the H1N1 flu. If you are a healty person with a good immune system you are less likely to get it and if you do you will get over it just like the regular flu. Befroe you write about this or go against what a doctors has said do a little research. A lot of people have been put in a panic about the H1N1 virus. By the way the sky is falling.

not only that proveallthings....but in Corpus you already have 3 deaths of swine flu--2 in the last month alone!!!! Our kids play tournaments there and they are in our district. Where is the Viper football team playing(scrimmage)tonight? Calallen

Everything in Victoria is about numbers. So until we have a death, Cate will still be clueless. Does Victoria even have 1 reported suspected case since this past school year.

Ok Mr. Bill Cate, so your not a bit worried about the H1N1 virus? Are you Nuts?,,,You may need to do more research on just how bad this pandemic is. I'm not too sure that You've done your homework. And by the way I Really like how you said that we're doing like other counties,,and you just mentioned Dewitt. What about More counties?,,How are they reacting to this H1N1 pandemic?. Lets take a look at the statistics,,,over 1800 people worldwide have DIED from this. May not seem like alot to You,,but its plenty for me to be abit more concerned than you seem to be. Don't get me wrong here, I'm not overly worried,,I'm just facing facts.They are estimating that as many as 2 BILLION worldwide will become infected with the H1N1 virus. Back in 1968 the Hong Kong flu killed about 1 MILLION people, and ordinary flu kills about 250,00 to 500,000 people each year. Now the Swine flu has been continuing to spread during the summer,,,,and normally flu viruses disappear with warm weather, but the swine flu is proving to be resilient. Sounds to me as if your looking at this as just a minor issue, by saying We Will Not Close The Schools. Why the hell not?. If there is an outbreak in the schools,,I say you better shut them down for awhile. Sounds to me like this all goes back to the almighty dollar,,,no kids in school,,no cash flow. We All know that each kid that goes to school is worth somewhere in the area of about $35 to $40 a head..Now days that is what Roll Call is all about. Kind of like counting cattle,,the schools count the number of heads in class during roll call and then tally up how much money was made for that day...Lets go back to All these counties that you were talking about. Do you think maybe you could mention more than just Dewitt county?..What about the counties around the San Antonio area? Take a look at how they are reacting to this pandemic. Hell they'll close public libraries if they have to,,just as they did last year. But Victoria will remain to do things ass backwards, as always. Look at what they're doing to provide water for the city. Opening up the city wells, letting water run thru the ditches, down to the river. Now how much of that water is actually going into the cities water supply? How much is just heading on down to the Gulf? How much is being evaporated? Stupid!! Just as our schools are!! I do think that we need to take this H1N1 virus a little more serious than what we are.