Young mother dies of swine flu complications at Tampa General Hospital

Valerie Post, the 24-year-old Citrus County woman who was pregnant when she came down with swine flu, has died.

Mrs. Post died at 8 p.m. Monday at Tampa General Hospital, surrounded by family members, said her husband, Bryan Post.

"She was worsening since last Thursday. We knew she was going," Bryan Post said Tuesday. "So we had family there all weekend."

Post, 23, has been racing between his hospitalized wife in Tampa and his two young daughters, who have stayed with relatives through the ordeal. He said he became so distraught over the weekend that he left the hospital on Sunday to go home, and was not there Monday night when his wife died.

Mrs. Post's death is the ninth in Hillsborough County attributed to the virus. Statewide, there have been at least 90 swine flu-related deaths.

She was seven months pregnant when she was rushed to Citrus Memorial Hospital on Aug. 7 with a sore throat, backache and slight fever. Doctors later confirmed she had the H1N1 virus.

Her baby, Nora, was delivered that day through an emergency C-section. Nora is doing fine, Bryan Post said. The couple also have another daughter, 17-month-old Trinity.

Mrs. Post had been in a medically induced coma since giving birth, her husband said. She was transferred to Tampa General after her condition worsened. She was brought out of the coma only long enough for her husband to tell her that the baby was fine.

Last week, Mrs. Post's condition began to decline further, her husband said. Family members — some flying in from Portugal, Brazil and Canada — were able to spend her final days with her.

He added the family is in the process of making funeral arrangements.

Though the majority of swine flu cases have been mild, pregnant women and their unborn babies have been found to be more vulnerable to the virus. Because of changes to the immune system during pregnancy, the virus is harder to shake. And during the second or third trimesters, the mother's lung capacity is reduced, which can make a respiratory infection like the flu more serious.

That's why pregnant women are at the top of the priority list to get the swine flu vaccine when it becomes available in mid October.

A 22-year-old Hillsborough County woman also died of swine flu complications in August after giving birth. In another Florida case, a 27-year-old woman from Riviera Beach spent three weeks in a coma battling swine flu after giving birth and survived, but her baby did not.

Richard Martin can be reached at rmartin@sptimes.com or (727) 893-8330