The Free Press, Mankato, MN

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October 26, 2009

Relative: Milbrath had no underlying health problem

Web site details battle to save him

By Brian Ojanpa

WASECA — A Waseca hospital administrator who died after contracting the H1N1 flu virus had no underlying medical conditions, a family member said.

“He was in good health. This is just a total shock,” said the relative, who declined to provide her name and urged people to be vigilant in using preventive practices against the disease.

“You’ve just got to take care of yourself because if it happens it can be devastating.”

Mike Milbrath, 54, died Saturday at Immanuel St. Joseph’s Hospital in Mankato.

The executive vice president of Waseca Medical Center was admitted to the hospital Oct. 14, and the presence of the H1N1 virus was confirmed six days later, according to Milbrath’s Caringbridge website updated by relatives.

Because Milbrath’s job duties did not place him in direct contact with patients, he had not received the H1N1 vaccine, Immanuel St. Joseph’s spokesman Kevin Burns said.

Under federal Centers for Disease Control guidelines, only staff whose jobs put them in direct patient contact are eligible for the vaccine due to its current scarcity.

According to the Caringbridge website, Milbrath entered the hospital with lung and kidney complications and had undergone his third round of kidney dialysis the day he was diagnosed with H1N1, or swine flu.

“Only 1 percent of the population that contract this virus are such severe cases as dad’s,” relatives wrote on the website, citing information they’d seen on the “60 Minutes” TV program.

Milbrath continued to receive dialysis and other treatments, but remained in critical condition.

He was approved to receive an experimental drug, Peramivir, because it has been shown to successfully treat some severe H1N1 cases.

“It is being flown in from the East coast and will be here in the morning. We are hopeful,” read an Oct. 22 website entry.

Milbrath received the drug the next day. At the time, his vital signs were stable.

On Saturday morning he had more dialysis and underwent tracheostomy surgery to aid his breathing before complications from the illness took his life that night.

John Stieger, communications director for the Minnesota Department of Health, said any determination regarding a patient’s underlying health issues cannot be made until the Department receives the official cause of death from a medical examiner.

Since the H1N1 outbreak began in the spring, the Department has confirmed 10 deaths in Minnesota related to the H1N1 virus.

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