不是加州 美首位新冠逝者在堪萨斯州 78岁妇无旅游史
9/03/2021
谁是美国第一个感染新型冠状病毒病故者像个谜，美国媒体报导，距离武汉1万多公里的堪萨斯州一位没有旅游史的78岁老妇去年1月9日去世，家属昨天拿到新版死亡证明，发现死因补登为感染COVID-19。
过去一年多来，查找美国感染COVID-19（2019冠状病毒疾病）第一位逝者，媒体的报导是住在加州圣荷西的女性陶德（Patricia Dowd），病逝日期为2020年2月6日。
位于美国中西部的堪萨斯州（Kansas）公共卫生部门最近更新早期染疫死亡的数据，基于隐私法，没有对外公开死者的身分。有家人死亡的佛斯特（Peaches Foster）被告知该州有人的死亡证明添加COVID-19的死因，凭着预感，她决定自己调查。
加州圣荷西「信使新闻」（The Mercury News）今天独家报导，佛斯特1日下午从堪萨斯州托彼卡（Topeka）人口动态统计办公室拿到她母亲死亡证明的新副本，看到COVID出现，解开了她一年多来的怀疑，泪流满面的她也发现母亲的名字布朗（Lovell “Cookie” Brown）被列为美国已知第一位染疫病逝者，逝世时间是2020年1月9日。
在这个星期之前，布朗的家人并不知情，3个月前急诊室的医生已悄悄地把COVID-19添加为布朗的死亡原因之一，这不仅修改一个人的死亡证明，同时改写新型冠状病毒抵达美国的时间表。
布朗的原始死亡证明记载着中风和慢性肺病身亡，今年5月补登「染疫」，并列入美国疾病管制暨预防中心（CDC）的官方死亡纪录中。医生回溯修正一年半前逝者的死亡原因并不寻常，基于什么证据如此修改，布朗的家人没有从医院或州政府官员得到确切的说明。
「她没有旅行，就在家和看医生」，家人回忆布朗生前最后几个月，主要是定期治疗糖尿病、慢性阻塞性肺疾病（COPD），以及对几年前罹患肺癌后的回诊追踪。
布朗去世前几周出现严重头痛、干咳、发烧、腹泻和身体疼痛的症状，甚至无法坐立，并抱怨「吃什么都没味道」，这些都是现在已知的新型冠状病毒染疫症状。被送进当地医院的加护病房住了一星期后，布朗生命告终，家人围绕在旁。那是去年1月初，世界卫生组织（WHO）刚通报中国爆发新型冠状病毒疫情。
佛斯特说，她妈妈病故10个月后，阿姨和姨丈也染疫身亡。新的死亡证明解开她母亲死因之谜，但并没有办法挽回母亲的生命。
Kansas grandmother, 78, who died on January 9, 2020 is named as United States’ FIRST victim of COVID
By ANDREA BLANCO
9/03/2021
- The identity of the first recorded COVID-19 death, Lovell Brown, was revealed
- Brown died at the age of 78, on January 9, 2020 at Providence Hospital, Kansas City, after experiencing COVID-19-related symptoms since Christmas 2019
- Her cause of death was updated from ‘acute stroke and chronic obtrusive lung disease’ to ‘COVID-19 Pneumonia’ three months ago but family was not alerted
- It is unknown why the ICU doctor amended the death certificate a year later
- Before the change, the first COVID-19 death in the U.S was believed to be Patricia Dowd, a California woman who died from the virus on February 6, 2020
- Five other January 2020 deaths were amended to COVID-19 in California, Alabama, Georgia, Oklahoma and Wisconsin
The identity of a Kansas grandmother who is now the first recorded COVID-19 death in the United States has been revealed, after her cause of death was changed to be the virus on May.
For over a year, it was believed that the first COVID-19 death in the country had been Patricia Dowd, a California woman who died from the virus on February 6, 2020.
But an investigation by the Bay Area News Group revealed that five January 2020 deaths had recently been listed as COVID-19-related- the earliest was Lovell Brown, from Leavenworth, Kansas, who died at the age of 78 on January 9, 2020, according to the Kansas Department of Health and Environment.
Her identity didn’t become public due to patient privacy laws, and relatives of Brown were not alerted of the change on her death certificate.
Brown’s daughter, Peaches Foster, requested a copy of her mother’s amended death certificate after she was contacted by The Mercury News through the Funeral Home that handled Brown’s funeral services.
An intensive care doctor changed the cause of Brown’s death just three months ago, on May 12, from ‘acute stroke and chronic obtrusive lung disease’ to ‘COVID-19 Pneumonia,’ The Mercury News reported.
It is unknown why they did so a year after Brown’s death.
Foster tried to contact the doctor but was told he was busy treating COVID-19 patients.
She reportedly told her brother that she believed their mother could have died from COVID-19 in March 2020, as the country entered lockdown and cases spiked across the states.
Before her death, Brown experienced COVID-like symptoms including headaches, cough, fever and body aches.
The symptoms had started back in Christmas 2019, when she complained to family members that she couldn’t taste the food they had brought to her at the nursing home where she resided.
Brown had pre-existing conditions that could have potentially increased the severity of her symptoms.
She suffered from diabetes and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and had suffered from lung cancer years ago.
She was initially taken to Saint John Hospital after she began having trouble to breathe, and was then transferred to the intensive care unit at Providence Medical Center in Kansas City, where she died.
Ten months after Brown’s death, her sister and brother-in law perished from COVID too.
Although it is suspected that the disease was already in the US in December 2019, without a tissue or blood sample from Brown, who was cremated, it is impossible to confirm the cause of her death.
Sam Allred, a spokesperson for Providence Hospital, told The Mercury News that they would help Foster navigate the change on her mother’s death certificate, and the reason behind it happening a year later.
‘We’ll work with her to try to get any answers we can,’ he said.
The five amended COVID-19, January 2020 deaths in California, Oklahoma, Alabama, Georgia, Wisconsin and Kansas have altered the national perception of the events that unfolded in the initial stages of the pandemic, when the virus was novel and many patients were misdiagnosed, or stayed home and attributed the symptoms to a cold.
California has registered 5,450 COVID-19 deaths since the pandemic started, according to the Center for Disease Control.
There are currently 373,171 cases of COVID-19, and 12,810 hospitalization in the state, according to the Kansas Department of Health and Environment.
Read more:
