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Monday, March 23, 2009

Mohonasen student's death possibly MRSA-related
Updated: 03/23/2009 06:19 PM
By: Web Staff

ROTTERDAM, N.Y. -- A Mohonasen High School student has died and it could possibly be the result of MRSA.

In a letter released by Principal David Collins Monday, he responded to the death of junior Kyle Gagnon saying, "While we don't have specifics, there is a rumor circulating that while in the hospital he developed an infection as a result of MRSA, an anitbiotic-resistant form of staph bacteria, which caused complications."

We reached out to the health department which said the school has been in contact with them and is fully cooperating at this time. Health officials said there has been no confirmation of MRSA in the school and that the school has all of the correct protocols in place.

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ROTTERDAM
Friends offer farewell words Staph suspected in teen’s death
BY JUSTIN MASON Gazette Reporter

Scores of marker-written messages flanked the photograph of Kyle Gagnon.
The image of the 17-year-old junior was placed in the center of a heart drawn on a poster board that eclipsed the Mohonasen High School trophy case Monday. His locker was also covered with messages and poems from students grieving his abrupt death over the weekend.
    “Watch over us,” reads one of the messages. “Always will remember you.”
    “God must have needed a soldier,” reads another.
    “Teammates for life,” reads yet another.
    Gagnon, who district officials described as popular student, died at the Albany Medical Center Hospital Saturday after being admitted with pneumonia last week. In a let- ter posted on the district’s Web site, Principal David Collins indicated health officials are still trying to determine what caused his death, but there is some speculation he died after contracting a drug-resistant staph infection.
    “It is our understanding that Kyle was hospitalized last week with pneumonia,” he said in the letter. “While we don’t have specifics, there is a rumor circulating that while in the hospital he developed an infection as a result of [Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus], an antibiotic-resistant form of staph bacteria, which caused complications.”
    Officials from the state Health Department are now investigating the cause of Gagnon’s death. However, spokeswoman Claire Pospisil said it’s too soon to tell whether MRSA was a contributing factor or where he may have contracted the infection if it was.
    “So far, our investigation does not indicate there is a public health risk for other students at the high school,” she said,
    District officials have been in contact with the Schenectady County Health Department, which has assured them the proper safeguards are in place to ensure the safety of students. Parents who have specific questions about drug-resistant staph infections are directed to contact their family physicians or check the district’s Web site, which has some general information about the disease.
    Collins described Gagnon as a “bright and popular student” who will be missed. He said the school has offered grief counseling in the wake of the tragic death.
    Gagnon was a member of the varsity basketball team and the school’s junior varsity baseball team. He also played football for the school at one point, district officials said.
    But his true appeal was the way he seemed to befriend a wide range of students, Collins said. Gagnon never seemed to confine himself to one specific group, he said.
    “You could see he transcended ..........................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....amp;EntityId=Ar00103

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ROTTERDAM
District urges staph prevention
Schalmont officials say student fell ill but has recovered
BY JUSTIN MASON Gazette Reporter

    Schalmont district officials confi rmed on Tuesday that a high school student athlete at the district was diagnosed with a drug-resistant staph infection last week.
    In a letter sent to parents Tuesday, the district acknowledged the case of community-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (known as MRSA). It gave suggestions on how to help prevent the disease. The student, whose name was not released, was evaluated by a physician, treated for the disease and has since returned to school, according to the letter.
    “In this case, the kid is healthy and back in school with a doctor’s permission,” Superintendent of Schools Valerie Kelsey said.
    Kelsey said the student had been absent from school recently and there was little cause for alarm. However, she said the district is taking extra precautions to ensure that the Schalmont facilities are thoroughly cleaned.
    Schalmont confirmed the case of MRSA amid an investigation by the state Department of Health into the death of a high school junior from the neighboring Mohanasen district last week. Spokeswoman Claire Pospisil said the state Health Department is still trying to determine if a staph infection led to the death of the student, 17-year-old Kyle Gagnon.
    “I think it’s premature to make any assumptions at this point,” she said.
    Gagnon, a varsity basketball player at Mohonasen, died at the Albany Medical Center Hospital on Saturday. The district indicated that he was hospitalized earlier in the week for treatment of pneumonia.
    Health Department officials have indicated that there is no identifiable risk related to the Mohanasen student’s death. School administrators also indicated that they had taken preventive measures to ensure the safety of students.
    Mohonasen officials said any updates about the investigation will come from the state.
    Staph bacteria are some of the most common causes of skin infection in the United States and are a common cause of pneumonia, surgical wound infections and bloodstream infections, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Infections occur most frequently in hospitals and health care facilities among people who have weakened immune systems.
    Glynnis Hunt, a spokeswoman with the Schenectady County Health Department, said she was unaware of the Schalmont case. However, she said districts fi nding single cases of MRSA aren’t required to report them.
    “Based on [the state] review, we’re trying ...........http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....amp;EntityId=Ar00104

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ROTTERDAM
MRSA cited in Mohon student death
School is safe, officials report
BY JUSTIN MASON Gazette Reporter

    Mohonasen High School junior Kyle Gagnon died as a result of a drug-resistant staph infection, according to a pathologist who conducted the autopsy.
    Dr. Bernard Ng said the pneumonia that hospitalized the 17-year-old student last week was likely a secondary infection to the methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus — also known as MRSA — that caused his death. Gagnon was a varsity basketball player, and the doctor said the case was one of a few in which drug-resistant staph infections were fatal to an otherwise healthy adolescent.
    “It’s very rare and very unfortunate,” Ng said Wednesday. “But it’s not completely unheard of.”
    Ng said samples taken from when Gagnon was first admitted to the hospital show the infection, meaning he likely contracted it before he was admitted. He could not say how the teen contracted the bacteria, which can be present in the body without causing illness.
    “A significant portion of people in the population probably harbor it and it causes no disease,” he said.
    Despite Ng’s diagnosis, officials from the state Department of Health refused to attribute Gagnon’s death to the bacteria sometimes referred to as a “superbug” due to its resistance to penicillin. Spokeswoman Beth Gold- burg said her agency is awaiting the pathologist’s full report and results from samples sent this week to the Wadsworth Center in Albany before making a determination.
    “All indications are this case, if it is confirmed to be MRSA, is not an outbreak,” she said Wednesday. “There’s no increased MRSA risk at the school or elsewhere in Schenectady County.”
    Gagnon died Saturday at the Albany Medical Center Hospital, where he was admitted after being stricken with pneumonia. The popular teen’s death sent a wave of grief throughout Mohonasen.
    Officials from the neighboring Schalmont Central School District disclosed that one of their students was ................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....amp;EntityId=Ar00102

Quoted from Salvatore

and when this here is happening the repubs want to cut the nurses and health and let the insurance comapnaies make all the profits that could be going to save the lives of the kids like this how sad

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Youth’s death confirmed as due to staph infection
BY JUSTIN MASON Gazette Reporter
Reach Gazette reporter Justin Mason at 395-3113 or jmason@dailygazette.ne

    Officials from the state Department of Health confirmed the death of a popular Mohonasen junior last month resulted from an isolated case of a drug-resistant staph infection.
    Tests sent to Albany’s Wadsworth Center in March reaffi rmed a medical examiner’s conclusion that Kyle Gagnon died as a result of an infection from methicillinresistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). State officials still aren’t sure how the boy was infected by the bacteria.
    “We want to reassure everyone that this case in particular poses no increased risk of MRSA at the individual’s school or in Schenectady County,” said Beth Goldberg, a spokeswoman for the Health Department. Gagnon died on March 21 at the Albany Medical Center Hospital, where he was admitted after being stricken with pneumonia. The Albany County medical examiner later determined the pneumonia was secondary to the staph infection, which was present in samples taken upon the boy’s admission to the hospital.
    “Based on the facts that we have, the infection does not appear to be hospital acquired,” Goldberg said Wednesday.
    Gagnon was a varsity basketball player at Mohonasen and considered extraordinarily popular. His death sent a wave of grief through the high school.
    Goldberg doubted they will ever determine the source of the fatal infection. “We don’t know,” she said.
    Less than a week after Gagnon’s death, officials from the neighboring Schalmont Central School District also disclosed that a student athlete there had fallen ill with a drug-resistant staph infection. But the ................http://www.dailygazette.net/De.....amp;EntityId=Ar01202