Teen Dies After Being Sent Home For Stomach Flu

The saddest thing is that I believe this was TOTALLY preventable and treatable. Was it the MEDICAL physician's fault? I cannot say because whether or not the girl had one of the RISK factors (see link above) for TSS then unknown. But TSS is specific in that it is vaginal or surgery related.

It sounds like only after she died did they test for it and find it...concerns me.

It sounds like she wasn't even tested for it. I wonder was she having her period. If she was she should have been tested for TSS.

When one of my daughters became suddenly very ill and was taken to emergency that is the first thing that she was tested for. She was having her period and she was using tampons.

What a tragedy for her family.

how tragic. Thanks karateblossom.

@ Cynthia T. [Picasso]
It sounds like she wasn't even tested for it. I wonder was she having her period. If she was she should have been tested for TSS.

When one of my daughters became suddenly very ill and was taken to emergency that is the first thing that she was tested for. She was having her period and she was using tampons.

What a tragedy for her family.

I wonder too.......it seemed so needless. like the docs just didn't look. And dads comment on Strep? whats up with that?

Maybe dad was embarrassed of the truth, KB? This is sad...and shows that all that could have been done...was not.

@ Debra Myers (skyangel)
Maybe dad was embarrassed of the truth, KB? This is sad...and shows that all that could have been done...was not.

Makes me want to cry....and don that little red cape even more.

@ Nikki W (karateblossom)
The saddest thing is that I believe this was TOTALLY preventable and treatable. Was it the MEDICAL physician's fault? I cannot say because whether or not the girl had one of the RISK factors (see link above) for TSS then unknown. But TSS is specific in that it is vaginal or surgery related.

It sounds like only after she died did they test for it and find it...concerns me.

I'm going to comment here in order to address the fact that certain information has been misunderstood or over looked.

Aarin's passing was not because of fault from the medical staff or her family. It was the cause of an infection, but slightly different from the one that you have been refering to. There are in fact two forms of Toxic Shock. The first of which is called TSS and it is related to the issues that you mentioned. However, the second is called STSS (I will provide a descirption of this). STSS is not related to female issues and is exactly what came to attack Aarin's immune system.

TSS and STSS are Staph. infections that can strike in as little as 48 hours. The first diagnosis was of Strep Throat and Aarin was treated and sent home. As her condition worsened she was ordered to the hospital. Up until this time it was unknown that Aarin had a rash and therefor was not tested for TSS or STSS. With the nature of the infection being so aggressive there was no way to stop it. As Aarin's body began to crash the medical staff tried very hard to do everything in their power to hold on to her and save her life. Regretfully they were not able to stop the infection.

My deepest condolences go out to everyone that knew Aarin. I am very saddened by this loss and I will continue to support her family in every way I possibly can.


"Streptococcal toxic shock syndrome (STSS)

Streptococcal toxic shock syndrome can happen following a streptococcus infection in the body, most often a skin infection or an infected wound. Within 48 hours of infection, the person's blood pressure drops dangerously low, and he or she may have fever, dizziness, confusion, difficulty breathing, and a weak and rapid pulse. The skin may be pale, cool, and moist, and there may be a blotchy rash that sometimes peels. The area around an infected wound can become swollen, red, and have areas of severely damaged or dying flesh. The liver and kidneys may begin to fail, and bleeding problems may develop."

Thank you, JoshuaT for clarifying this. It is a sad that this happened, none the less. Our thoughts go out to her family.

@ JoshuaT
I'm going to comment here in order to address the fact that certain information has been misunderstood or over looked.

Aarin's passing was not because of fault from the medical staff or her family. It was the cause of an infection, but slightly different from the one that you have been refering to. There are in fact two forms of Toxic Shock. The first of which is called TSS and it is related to the issues that you mentioned. However, the second is called STSS (I will provide a descirption of this). STSS is not related to female issues and is exactly what came to attack Aarin's immune system.

TSS and STSS are Staph. infections that can strike in as little as 48 hours. The first diagnosis was of Strep Throat and Aarin was treated and sent home. As her condition worsened she was ordered to the hospital. Up until this time it was unknown that Aarin had a rash and therefor was not tested for TSS or STSS. With the nature of the infection being so aggressive there was no way to stop it. As Aarin's body began to crash the medical staff tried very hard to do everything in their power to hold on to her and save her life. Regretfully they were not able to stop the infection.

My deepest condolences go out to everyone that knew Aarin. I am very saddened by this loss and I will continue to support her family in every way I possibly can.


"Streptococcal toxic shock syndrome (STSS)

Streptococcal toxic shock syndrome can happen following a streptococcus infection in the body, most often a skin infection or an infected wound. Within 48 hours of infection, the person's blood pressure drops dangerously low, and he or she may have fever, dizziness, confusion, difficulty breathing, and a weak and rapid pulse. The skin may be pale, cool, and moist, and there may be a blotchy rash that sometimes peels. The area around an infected wound can become swollen, red, and have areas of severely damaged or dying flesh. The liver and kidneys may begin to fail, and bleeding problems may develop."

Thank you for this additional information. At the moment I am taking care of one of the kids who has an infection. We have been keeping a close eye on her because of this kind of thing. It's important for parents to know that infections can turnly deadly in a matter of hours if not treated promptly.

I just have a few comments:

(1) There is no "test" for Toxic Shock Syndrome. I recommend that you look it up (emedicine has a nice summary) and learn something about the disease, its diagnosis, its prognosis, and its treatment. This is not like "CSI" where you just swab someone's cheek, run it through a machine, and get all the answers.

(2) This was a tragedy. It was nobody's fault. Not Aarin's, not her family's, not the doctors'. Why does everybody have to be so quick to jump on the blame bandwagon? Sometimes bad things just happen, even to very good people. Can't we just accept it as a tragedy and not blame someone? I also feel your comment was disrespectful to the family. Imagine undergoing the worst tragedy of your life, and then being told that it was "TOTALLY preventable and treatable" and that "dad was embarrassed of the truth." I'm guessing the family is suffering enough, and probably doesn't need someone making them feel guilty, or that not enough was done. Please let's respect this poor family and their grief.

(3) Contrary to what you seem to believe, doctors, nurses, and other health care providers are NOT a bunch of lazy, ignorant, slow-witted fools. They really do want what's best for their patients, and I'm willing to bet that everyone who was in any way involved with Aarin's care did everything they could. I don't doubt that they themselves are saddened, and are beating themselves up wondering if there was just one more thing they could have done. Not because they are idiots, but because they cared.

Thank you.

Aarin McGuire died of STSS which is a bacterial infection. She was a ready, set, teach student and was helping at a local school. That school happened to be MINE. My teacher was the one who sent her home when she broke down about not feeling good and even though she resisted at first saying that she wanted to be with us and help us my teacher finally convinced to go home. My best friend's mother works at the hospital where Aarin died. She works in the ER and her friend happened to be working on Aarin. This is nobody's fault. Aarin's kidneys failed her and every time they would lose her heartbeat they would revive her again. After going through this cycle many times they regretfully let her go. She DID have strep throat and was being treated for it. She also had a rash that they later found at the medical examiner's office. The strep throat and rash caused the STSS.She was a very loving person who never wanted to be away from us. The best memory of her was when she would always flip her long blond hair. My teacher only new her a little and of hearing this news she started bawling and attended her funeral on Thurs.. This shows the affect Aarin had on people. Again this is no one's fault and it was God's choice to take her and it was because she was ready for heaven. Sincere wishes go out to Aarin's family. She was a wonderful and beautiful person. We all miss her very much.

@ Brittcutie202
Aarin McGuire died of STSS which is a bacterial infection. She was a ready, set, teach student and was helping at a local school. That school happened to be MINE. My teacher was the one who sent her home when she broke down about not feeling good and even though she resisted at first saying that she wanted to be with us and help us my teacher finally convinced to go home. My best friend's mother works at the hospital where Aarin died. She works in the ER and her friend happened to be working on Aarin. This is nobody's fault. Aarin's kidneys failed her and every time they would lose her heartbeat they would revive her again. After going through this cycle many times they regretfully let her go. She DID have strep throat and was being treated for it. She also had a rash that they later found at the medical examiner's office. The strep throat and rash caused the STSS.She was a very loving person who never wanted to be away from us. The best memory of her was when she would always flip her long blond hair. My teacher only new her a little and of hearing this news she started bawling and attended her funeral on Thurs.. This shows the affect Aarin had on people. Again this is no one's fault and it was God's choice to take her and it was because she was ready for heaven. Sincere wishes go out to Aarin's family. She was a wonderful and beautiful person. We all miss her very much.

Thank you for sharing and I'm sorry for your loss, as well as the parents loss. It is never anyone's "fault" in a case like this.

I've been misdiagnosed for 15 years with something that only recently found that could have been fatal and am now being treated. The ER docs on 5 occasions over the course of 15 years have not looked at what it was, misdiagnosing it as something completely different.

Even when I sat in an ER only 6 weeks ago and was once again misdiagnosed, had it not been for a contracted er physician who undermined the ER physician and ran further tests and asked me EXTRA questions and looked further beyond my symptoms, did they find the fatal problem.

I am blessed that I didn't end up the way Aarin.

24 years ago, I had TSS. I had a sunburn looking rash during my menstral cycle and had flu-like symptoms. I went to a local clinic and they sent me to the ER. Back in the 80's, TSS was common and they KNEW what to look for . There is NOT a test for TSS. There IS a test for the bacteria associated with TSS. TSS is treatable and doesn't have to be FATAL.

They don't look for it anymore because it isn't common now - 30 years later.

Thank you for your comments. Again, my prayers go out to those who knew Aarin, for I did not know her and i found her death to be tragic and sad. It touched my heart that such a young woman had to leave our earth so soon and so senselessly.

Being directly involved in the medical community for quite some time, i've had the opportunity to see my fair share of misdiagnosis cases due to negligence. Its th reason we have medical malpractice in our country - not to place BLAME on anyone but to make right th losses we experience if indeed they are due in part or as a result of negligence.

Once again, Aarin died because of an STSS infection. Not TSS. TSS is the Staphylococcus bacteria where as STSS is the Streptococcal bacteria. Aarin did have Strep throat which is caused by the same bacteria. When Aarin showed the symptoms of shock she was taken to the ER.

Taken from the Center for Desease Control;

Acute Life-Threatening Group A Streptococcal Infections

Streptococcal TSS

Recently, severe invasive GAS infections associated with shock and organ failure have been reported with increasing frequency, predominantly from North America and Europe (8-18). These infections have been termed streptococcal toxic-shock syndrome (TSS; Table 1) (19). Persons of all ages are affected; most do not have predisposing underlying diseases (11,20-25). This is in sharp contrast to previous reports of GAS bacteremia, in which patients were either under 10 or over 60 years of age, and most had underlying conditions such as cancer, renal failure, leukemia, or severe burns or were receiving corticosteroids or other immunosuppressing drugs (20-22). The complications of current GAS infections are severe; bacteremia associated with aggressive soft tissue infection, shock, adult respiratory distress syndrome and renal failure are common; 30% to 70% of patients die in spite of aggressive modern treatments

@ JoshuaT
Once again, Aarin died because of an STSS infection. Not TSS. TSS is the Staphylococcus bacteria where as STSS is the Streptococcal bacteria. Aarin did have Strep throat which is caused by the same bacteria. When Aarin showed the symptoms of shock she was taken to the ER.

Taken from the Center for Desease Control;

Acute Life-Threatening Group A Streptococcal Infections

Streptococcal TSS

Recently, severe invasive GAS infections associated with shock and organ failure have been reported with increasing frequency, predominantly from North America and Europe (8-18). These infections have been termed streptococcal toxic-shock syndrome (TSS; Table 1) (19). Persons of all ages are affected; most do not have predisposing underlying diseases (11,20-25). This is in sharp contrast to previous reports of GAS bacteremia, in which patients were either under 10 or over 60 years of age, and most had underlying conditions such as cancer, renal failure, leukemia, or severe burns or were receiving corticosteroids or other immunosuppressing drugs (20-22). The complications of current GAS infections are severe; bacteremia associated with aggressive soft tissue infection, shock, adult respiratory distress syndrome and renal failure are common; 30% to 70% of patients die in spite of aggressive modern treatments

JOSH: Thanks for the update - the same medical information is in the original story link but it can get lost in retaliatory comments by trolls so your restatement of fact is great. I presume you are the attending physician to have the exact details of her death, as those details are not public so I appreciate your comment, although HIPPA may have some concerns in that you shared exact patient information and therefore, violated pt confidentiality so taking such a risk was a noble contribution. We thank you.

I agree, and have always agreed, that the bacterial infection IS the reason for her death - and is fatal if left untreated.

The type of bacteria and its location within the body (TSS is historically female and vaginal, but can affect men as well and the CDC link provided by the article as well as your comment - and anyone who has 1/2 ounce of their own intelligence to read on the disease themselves by credible sources- will find that the bacteria, if left UNTREATED, causes the death). Here is a PEER REVIEWED MEDICAL journal article related to TSS for anyone who would like a bit more information:

http://www.jabfm.org/cgi/reprint/14/2/131.pdf

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C07E7D71239F937A1575BC0A962958260

this article published substantiates the influenza and strep strains of TSS and further substantiates that medical misdiagnosis can be an issue:

Although all forms of toxic shock syndrome are relatively rare, they are common enough and serious enough to warrant a widespread alert to their early symptoms, especially since many patients do not take the first signs of trouble seriously and doctors unfamiliar with the syndrome often misdiagnose it until it is too late to save the patient

I've had TSS, I have read on TSS, TSS info has been provided, CDC is a fab resource.

Thanks again for the extra "support". :-)

Trolls???

Wow.

3) Contrary to what you seem to believe, doctors, nurses, and other health care providers are NOT a bunch of lazy, ignorant, slow-witted fools. They really do want what's best for their patients, and I'm willing to bet that everyone who was in any way involved with Aarin's care did everything they could. I don't doubt that they themselves are saddened, and are beating themselves up wondering if there was just one more thing they could have done. Not because they are idiots, but because they cared.

The term troll is highly subjective. Some readers may characterize a post as trolling, while others may regard the same post as a legitimate contribution to the discussion, even if controversial. The term is often erroneously used to discredit an opposing position, or its proponent, by argument fallacy ad hominem.

Often, calling someone a troll makes assumptions about a writer's motives. Regardless of the circumstances, controversial posts may attract a particularly strong response from those unfamiliar with the robust dialogue found in some online, rather than physical, communities.

Experienced participants in online forums know that the most effective way to discourage a troll is usually to ignore him or her, because responding encourages a true troll to continue disruptive posts — hence the often-seen warning "Please do not feed the troll".[citation needed]

Frequently, someone who has been labelled a troll by a group may seek to redeem their reputation by discrediting their opponents, for example by claiming that other members of the group are closed-minded, conspirators, or trolls themselves.

By definition and accusation alone, I stand by my term. I am deeply saddened by her death and in no way implied that it was due to slow-wit or ignorance on anyone's part.

My apologies if you feel attacked or threatened by viewpoints that other medical information should have been examined.

Any loss of life, especially one so young and vibrant, is a very sad loss. For that, I'm sorry.

My personal feelings relayed in the comments sections of this forum are reflective of my personal opinion based upon experience of working in a hospital, having had TSS myself, researching the 2-type bacterial infection and a legal and personal understanding medical misdiagnosis. Not a personal attack on you so if you feel it as such, you may not want to read my comments. Just a thought for future.

Okay, then, I'm outta here. I didn't realize that this was going to be so hostile. There's an easy way to avoid your comments, and that's to unsubscribe to this thread. Good luck with everything.

First of all I would like to thanks all the positive comments. Our family is very grateful for your thoughts. To Josh: I want to thank you for trying to shed light on Aarin's story. Unfortunately there is always someone that will not listen and make comments to discredit it. Aarin was like a daughter to me and I will always miss her. I will never forget the light she brought into my life. To Brittcutie: I am glad that you got to know Aarin, she was and is truly special. she loved the students she worked with. Our family have started a scholarship in her name and I will make sure that it continues for years to come. I call my sister everyday now that I am back home to tell her that I'm always thinking of her. Again thank you all for your comments and God bless you one and all

Aarin'sUncle...Thank you for taking the time on come on here and add your thoughts. My thoughts and prayers go out to you and your family in this difficult time.

Aarin'sUncle:Thank you soo much for commenting back. That really gave me a sense of relief. I haven't stopped thinking about her and I don't think I ever will. A boy who was 14 died I think today or yesterday from TSS or STSS which is truly strange since they haven't seen it since the 80s and Aarin was the first since then. I have heard rumors that she cut herself with a rusted razor when shaving which caused a bit of staph. I also heard that her boyfriend was going to propose to her on graduation day. I would like to clear the rumors and know what's true and what is not. Also, my teacher has a desk in her room where aarin used to sit when she would visit. I very often look over there thinking she is sitting there and in fact i did it again today. We all miss her so much. I can't imagine the pain you're feeling but you have to remember this isn't anyone's fault and God has reasons for things.

Brittcutie202: We all miss her and think of her daily. I have talked to her boyfriend a couple times this week just to see how he is doing. I am not sure if he was going to propse to her on graduation but they where promised to each other so im sure it was possiable. They where the love of each others lives. Im so glad that God sent him to her so that she would know and experience that love. There is no telling how she came down with STSS for sure, but the rash was caused by shaving and it is the most likely culprit so take care and use disposiable razors thats my advice but I dont really know only God does. It just happened. I know you miss her aswell. I think anyone who knew her or knew of her are heartbroken but we ourselves must stay strong and not be broken. Thank you so much for responding and I hope this helps.

"For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know you full well." Psalm 139:13,14

Another way that staph infections can enter the body is by entering through the skin on the feet, if a person's has cracked heels. I have a friend that ended up with MRSA so bad that it darned near killed her...and it was because she went around barefoot.

Aarin'sUncle:It definately helped! The rumors hopefully will stop soon. I'm glad too that Aarin got to experience love. I'm sure she is happy in heaven and the beautiful weather we've been having in texas is her probably smiling down at all of us and letting us know she is ok. I'm sure she thinks of you daily aswell and looks down upon you all the time. I was flipping through my bible just yesterday when I came upon a phrase about heaven in the index it said: In heaven we will get a new body and everything will be happy and there will be no more sadness or dying. I'm sure aarin is more beautiful than she already was which is quite amazing because just sitting in a corner desk she lit up a room. You're right about her still being special which is quite true. God bless you too and I will stay strong. After hearing Aarin's story I've been trying to live things to the fullest instead of mopeing around for no reason. She has taught me to be happy no matter what because things can happen in the blink of an eye. Even to the best of us. I hope you have a wonderful Spring Break and I'll talk to you soon. Thanks for commenting back! :) (PS today i found a rusted razor in the shower and without a doubt i threw it out without knowing whose it was because i wouldn't want something like that to ever happen to anyone ever again)