Posted on: Saturday, February 19, 2005
Woman may have died from bacterial infection
By David Waite
Advertiser Staff Writer
A 22-year-old woman who died at Wahiawa General Hospital hours after her fiancˇ took her to the emergency room Wednesday is believed to have suffered from a bacterial infection, authorities said yesterday.
The woman — identified by the city medical examiner's office as Lacey Thomas, a Kentucky resident visiting a Schofield Barracks soldier who just returned from Iraq — was taken to the hospital Wednesday night. A doctor there told police that he suspected the woman died of a bacterial infection.
Meanwhile, the state health department confirmed yesterday that it is investigating a case of bacterial meningitis, a potentially fatal infection of spinal cord fluid and of the fluid that surrounds the brain.
Darcie Yukimura, a state Department of Health spokeswoman, could not confirm that the bacterial meningitis case the department is aware of involves the Kentucky woman.
"We received a report of a possible meningitis case that is pending confirmation," Yukimura said.
"It's important to note that this type of meningitis is not very contagious — you need very close contact with someone who is ill to contract it from them," Yukimura said.
"The other thing to note is that we don't view this as a public health threat," Yukimura said.
The health department is testing people who came in close contact with the person suspected of having died from meningitis, Yukimura said.
There have been 10 confirmed cases of bacterial meningitis in Hawai'i (one on Maui, two on the Big Island, seven on O'ahu) since January 2004, with three deaths, Yukimura said. "We tend to see cases in younger school children and also among college-age young adults," she said.
