Clearly his kids weren't calling every week. |
I’m honestly shocked they didnt hire anyone to help with his care given his wealth. Might have been discovered sooner. |
This is just wrong. Hantavirus is rare and yes you’re more likely to get it indoors, but as this article discussing an outbreak at Yosemite makes clear, you can catch it outside and you certainly don’t have to be writhing in a bed of it. https://www.ucsf.edu/news/2012/08/104306/hantavirus-be-careful-not-fearful |
I know someone who got hantavirus from sweeping up their garage and around the outside of their house. |
Just curious...do people in those areas not have regular exterminator/pest control? |
Anyone who has lived in the 4 corners area (the real 4 corners, not just those states) knows someone who has had it. |
Why those areas? |
I had figured Gene died of a heart attack or something, like if he found his wife and tried to go get help. Didn't know he had Alz.
But if he had Alz and she was his only caregiver, I am astonished family would not have done something to arrange for someone to be coming in daily. My mom's cousin had Alz and her husband, in his 80s, took care of her. But one son had a basement apt there and the other kids would go there as well. One week the live in son was gone fishing. Husband has a heart attack in the bedroom, falls against the door, she's on the other side so the door doesn't open. Other kids called a couple of times and both times she answered and said he went to the store or was napping. Sone gets back from fishing and his dad has been dead for 3 days. |
That's where the first known US outbreak occurred. |
What, do DCUM families have a weekly pest control guy as well as a house cleaner? CDC says house mice rarely, if ever, carry hantavirus (apparently each strain as a specific species reservoir, in the 4 corners it's deer mice). They lived in what has been described as isolated from town, there's plenty of habitat for wild rodents. My impression is that the virus can spread on dust contaminated with droppings, and Santa Fe is dry. The apparently figured Gene's death out based on his pacemaker, his heart rhythm had become abnormal. |
Because that is where deer mice live (not just in the four corners, but they are a western critter prevalent in the four corners), and deer mice carry the SNV variant which causes HPS. There are other variants and carriers, and there are a few cases in the east and southeast. This article is older so the case numbers are lower, but it’s a good introduction to hantavirus if you want to learn more about it. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3840873/ |
It happens all the time in the South West. Totally clean house, and you can't detect there are rodents in your walls and ceiling. They poop and pee and you breathe in Hanta. |
I had a relative who had minor short term memory loss, but was driving and doing well until they fell and hit their head, and the decline was quite severe. The doctors said it was very common. These people have very little mental “reserve,” and any kind of insult can precipitate a rapid decline. |
Exhibit A for why having kids is so, sooooooop overrated
So many people think their kids are gonna give a crap about them when they get old and are on their death bed. So many examples of where it isn't true. Or your kids turn into massive jerk offs |
They lived in a semi rural area. There are deer mice everywhere in the New Mexico countryside, so exterminating the ones in your house just makes room for the ones outside to come in (usually looking for water). Mice can enter through the tiniest holes you can imagine, and it’s very common for it to be an ongoing battle, especially in arid places. Besides, the articles said there were no signs of mice in the house, but there were in outbuildings. |