Meningitis death leaves questions
Published: December 14, 2004
By LENORE RUTHERFORD
Rocky Hernandez's life and the hours leading up to his death are difficult to reconcile.
Family and friends describe the 26-year-old California native as strong, healthy and happy.
But the last seven hours of his life, he was covered with a bruise-like rash. He was vomiting and suffering a fever.
Hernandez, the first to die in Tuolumne County from meningitis in more than a decade, went from being strong and healthy to weak and in extreme pain in just hours.
This also marks the county's second confirmed case of meningitis this year but the only fatality. His death raises questions about his life, about the bacteria that killed him, how it's spread and how dangerous it is.
Bacterial meningitis is an infection of the membranes around the spine and brain.
While the disease is not as contagious as the common cold or the flu, it can be much more deadly than either if not treated. Such was the case with Hernandez, who received treatment within hours — which was still too late.
The strain of bacteria that attacked Hernandez and the county's other confirmed patient is called Neisseria meningitidis.
It's usually harmless.
But if it invades the blood and travels to the brain or spine, it can cause meningitis.
Such cases of meningitis are fatal in 8 to 10 percent of those who get it.
The mortality rate drops to 5 percent in those who get treatment as soon as they are aware of the symptoms.
That's why County Public Health Officer Todd Stolp wants the public to be aware.
Early symptoms of the disease include fever, headache, stiff neck and/or a purple rash that looks like dots from an ink pen.
Anyone with those symptoms should call a physician immediately, Stolp said.
Hernandez had those symptoms, which quickly progressed into vomiting blood and a rash that looked like extensive bruising, according to his wife.
Little is understood about the sporadic spread of the type of bacterial meningitis in the county.
Stolp said he has found no relationship between the people who have become infected in Tuolumne County.
The disease can be contracted through the exchange of respiratory and throat secretions such as coughing, kissing or living in close quarters for a prolonged amount of time, Stolp said.
People in the same household, day-care center, college dormitory or military barracks — or anyone with direct contact to oral secretions, such as boyfriend or girlfriend — is at increased risk.
People who think they have been exposed to the disease should seek antibiotic treatment as soon as possible, Stolp said.
Ryan Pike, development director for the Meningitis Foundation of America in Indiana, is a survivor of bacterial meningitis.
He contracted it while he was a food worker living in a college dormitory at the University of Indiana, he said.
"I lived in a dormitory with 75 to 80 students," he said, "and no one else contracted it but me. I understand people having concerns, but it is not that easily contracted."
He said the bacteria that cause meningitis can only live outside of the body for a few seconds, so it is very unlikely that anyone can catch the disease without prolonged contact.
The Meningitis Foundation of America says Neisseria meningitidis live in the back of the nose and throat region and are carried at any given time by between 10 and 25 percent of the population.
How the bacteria get into the brains and spines of a small number of unfortunate people, which is what Stolp believes happened here, remains the subject of research.
Stolp wants to dispel rumors that there are more cases of the potentially deadly disease that are not being made public or that it can be contracted by going to a restaurant or breathing the same air as someone who comes down with it.
"Rumors develop faster than the common cold or flu," he said, "but we must stick to the science. Don't jump to conclusions or believe what you hear from friends. There are no other cases, and this is the only fatality."
That it killed a young, healthy man, however, attests to its potential danger.
Hernandez first mentioned that he thought he was coming down with the flu in a telephone conversation with his mother Friday morning.
By the time his wife got home from her job at 2:30 p.m. Friday, he was very sick, but she didn't realize how serious it was until about 9:30 p.m., when she called 911.
He died the next morning at Doctors Medical Center in Modesto.
"He was a beautiful person," Jessica Hernandez said. "He had the biggest dimples and the most beautiful smile. Everybody loved him. The most important things in his life were his family and his music."
The couple met in 1997 when Rocky moved to Sonora from Alameda to attend Columbia College.
They had been together since and were married Nov. 23, 2003.
They have one daughter, Ukiah, 2 1/2, and Jessica Hernandez is pregnant with another child.
"He was a real poet," said Thomas Alexander, Jessica's brother, who performed in a local hip-hop band with Hernandez. "He wrote all his own music."
The band, AOD, cut one CD and is in the process of making its second.
"A lot of high school kids know us," Alexander said. "We've sold about 1,000 albums in the Sonora area. Our music isn't gang stuff. It's more about every day life."
Hernandez supplemented his income from the band by working at a Sonora restaurant. His wife works at a fast-food restaurant.
"He always did what he had to do to support his family," his wife said.
An account has been set up for their children at Bank of America in Sonora.
Contact Lenore Rutherford at [email protected].
Published: December 14, 2004
By LENORE RUTHERFORD
Rocky Hernandez's life and the hours leading up to his death are difficult to reconcile.
Family and friends describe the 26-year-old California native as strong, healthy and happy.
But the last seven hours of his life, he was covered with a bruise-like rash. He was vomiting and suffering a fever.
Hernandez, the first to die in Tuolumne County from meningitis in more than a decade, went from being strong and healthy to weak and in extreme pain in just hours.
This also marks the county's second confirmed case of meningitis this year but the only fatality. His death raises questions about his life, about the bacteria that killed him, how it's spread and how dangerous it is.
Bacterial meningitis is an infection of the membranes around the spine and brain.
While the disease is not as contagious as the common cold or the flu, it can be much more deadly than either if not treated. Such was the case with Hernandez, who received treatment within hours — which was still too late.
The strain of bacteria that attacked Hernandez and the county's other confirmed patient is called Neisseria meningitidis.
It's usually harmless.
But if it invades the blood and travels to the brain or spine, it can cause meningitis.
Such cases of meningitis are fatal in 8 to 10 percent of those who get it.
The mortality rate drops to 5 percent in those who get treatment as soon as they are aware of the symptoms.
That's why County Public Health Officer Todd Stolp wants the public to be aware.
Early symptoms of the disease include fever, headache, stiff neck and/or a purple rash that looks like dots from an ink pen.
Anyone with those symptoms should call a physician immediately, Stolp said.
Hernandez had those symptoms, which quickly progressed into vomiting blood and a rash that looked like extensive bruising, according to his wife.
Little is understood about the sporadic spread of the type of bacterial meningitis in the county.
Stolp said he has found no relationship between the people who have become infected in Tuolumne County.
The disease can be contracted through the exchange of respiratory and throat secretions such as coughing, kissing or living in close quarters for a prolonged amount of time, Stolp said.
People in the same household, day-care center, college dormitory or military barracks — or anyone with direct contact to oral secretions, such as boyfriend or girlfriend — is at increased risk.
People who think they have been exposed to the disease should seek antibiotic treatment as soon as possible, Stolp said.
Ryan Pike, development director for the Meningitis Foundation of America in Indiana, is a survivor of bacterial meningitis.
He contracted it while he was a food worker living in a college dormitory at the University of Indiana, he said.
"I lived in a dormitory with 75 to 80 students," he said, "and no one else contracted it but me. I understand people having concerns, but it is not that easily contracted."
He said the bacteria that cause meningitis can only live outside of the body for a few seconds, so it is very unlikely that anyone can catch the disease without prolonged contact.
The Meningitis Foundation of America says Neisseria meningitidis live in the back of the nose and throat region and are carried at any given time by between 10 and 25 percent of the population.
How the bacteria get into the brains and spines of a small number of unfortunate people, which is what Stolp believes happened here, remains the subject of research.
Stolp wants to dispel rumors that there are more cases of the potentially deadly disease that are not being made public or that it can be contracted by going to a restaurant or breathing the same air as someone who comes down with it.
"Rumors develop faster than the common cold or flu," he said, "but we must stick to the science. Don't jump to conclusions or believe what you hear from friends. There are no other cases, and this is the only fatality."
That it killed a young, healthy man, however, attests to its potential danger.
Hernandez first mentioned that he thought he was coming down with the flu in a telephone conversation with his mother Friday morning.
By the time his wife got home from her job at 2:30 p.m. Friday, he was very sick, but she didn't realize how serious it was until about 9:30 p.m., when she called 911.
He died the next morning at Doctors Medical Center in Modesto.
"He was a beautiful person," Jessica Hernandez said. "He had the biggest dimples and the most beautiful smile. Everybody loved him. The most important things in his life were his family and his music."
The couple met in 1997 when Rocky moved to Sonora from Alameda to attend Columbia College.
They had been together since and were married Nov. 23, 2003.
They have one daughter, Ukiah, 2 1/2, and Jessica Hernandez is pregnant with another child.
"He was a real poet," said Thomas Alexander, Jessica's brother, who performed in a local hip-hop band with Hernandez. "He wrote all his own music."
The band, AOD, cut one CD and is in the process of making its second.
"A lot of high school kids know us," Alexander said. "We've sold about 1,000 albums in the Sonora area. Our music isn't gang stuff. It's more about every day life."
Hernandez supplemented his income from the band by working at a Sonora restaurant. His wife works at a fast-food restaurant.
"He always did what he had to do to support his family," his wife said.
An account has been set up for their children at Bank of America in Sonora.
Contact Lenore Rutherford at [email protected].
