# 3364
Despite the `mild’ descriptive label that many have hung on the pandemic H1N1 virus, we continue to see hundreds of people hospitalized, and a small but growing number of deaths.
Clearly, this virus is capable of producing serious, even deadly, complications.
Helen Branswell of the Canadian Press does a terrific job taking us inside the ICU of a Winnipeg hospital where they are dealing with multiple critically ill swine flu patients, many of whom are on ventilators.
Follow the link, and read the report.
Swine flu patients in ICU tough to manage, 'just really, really sick': doctors
By Helen Branswell Medical Reporter
In a typical flu season, the Winnipeg hospitals where Dr. Anand Kumar works might see one, maybe two life-threatening cases of viral pneumonia caused by influenza.
So seeing 10, 15 and more flu patients in those same hospitals' intensive care beds in June is still a shock, suggests Kumar, a critical care specialist who works at three different hospitals in the city.
"You just don't see this many of them," Anand says of the patients, struggling to survive swine flu infections.
"You don't see rows and rows of patients on ventilators because they have respiratory failure, a viral pneumonia kind of thing. It's unusual."
