Swine flu cited in Linda man's death

A Linda man who loved church and outreach to at-risk youth is believed to be the first Yuba-Sutter resident to die from swine flu complications.

Johnny Duerksen, 32, died Thursday at Fremont Medical Center in Yuba City after testing positive almost a month ago for H1N1, said his wife, Kelie Duerksen. He came down with symptoms Sept. 21 and was admitted to the hospital on Sept. 26.

Five days later, he was put on life support and heavily sedated. He never recovered.

Johnny Duerksen's death came as a shock, family members and friends said. They said he was a strong, healthy man who never let illness take him down.

"He was a fighter," said Sarah Martinez, who knew Johnny Duerksen for nine years.

As of Friday, there had been no swine flu-related deaths reported by local health departments, but Johnny Duerksen's family and a local mortuary confirmed H1N1 as a cause of death. Hospitals, coroners and other agencies must report any H1N1 deaths to the deceased individual's county of residence.

Kelie Duerksen said her husband was first diagnosed with a severe upper respiratory infection and then pneumonia a few days later. He was released to go home, but when he could not breathe the next day and his fever reached 105 degrees, he returned to the hospital, his wife said.

He was put on life support and the doctors soon told Kelie Duerksen that her husband had tested positive for H1N1. He was put into isolation.

Kelie Duerksen and their six children, ages 3, 5, 9, 11, 12 and 14, were all treated with Tamiflu and Amoxicillin as precautions.

"We slept in the same bed; we were always around each other," she said. "They told me to treat myself just in case."

Kelie Duerksen also knew H1N1, or some variation of the flu, was circulating through their church.

"Everybody believes my husband caught it first," she said. "And then it spread."

David Gonzales, pastor of Victory Outreach, said he tested positive for swine flu just days after Duerksen first became ill. But he and a few others in the congregation were fortunate enough to catch the virus in the first 24 hours and be treated, he said.

The congregation held vigils, all-night prayer meetings and asked for support from other Victory Outreach churches throughout the world.

"It's so aggressive, and it just progressed to a point where he could not make it back," Gonzales said. "It was like one step forward and three steps back."

To have a death from the H1N1 virus in this community is a surreal feeling and totally unexpected, Gonzales said.

"You never think that something like this would happen because of the flu. Everybody gets the flu," he said. "But this is a supernatural flu."

Where Johnny Duerksen may have contracted the disease is a mystery, Kelie Duerksen said. But the illness started strong and with clear symptoms, including loss of appetite, severe thirst and headache, coughing, chest pain, fever and chills.

"He had every single thing that is listed on the swine flu list," she said.

Before then, Kelie Duerksen never really worried about swine flu, not even when her daughter came home from high school and said other students had been at the hospital with the illness.

"I thought the media was kind of blowing it out of proportion, so I wasn't worried," she said. "Even when they still diagnosed him with pneumonia, it didn't hit me. I thought, 'He'll be OK."

A painter by trade, Johnny Duerksen's true passion was outreach, his wife said. As a former gang member and drug addict who turned to Christianity 10 years ago, he wanted to help other people, she said.

"That was his heart, to go out and reach out to the same kinds of kids who came from his lifestyle, to get them to know God and that they can change their life," Kelie Duerksen said.