Jessica-I have just found your posting and I’m intrigued for personal purposes. My son’s girlfriend, whose primary residence is in Cook County in northwest suburbs, died suddenly and unexpectedly while at college in Colorado in early December. The rumors, like Ms Castens, were that it was drug related. But it wasn’t…she was an otherwise happy, healthy, vibrant young woman, 17 years old, that was packing for a trip to see her boyfriend (my son) in another state. After talking to my son, her mom, and a friend with excitement for her flight and trip, she never made her flight and within less than 2 hours of talking to all she was found collapsed and dead in her room next to her packed bag. We are still a week away from autopsy results, and thank you for informing us all that coroner related autopsies can be located thru FOIA access for a fee.
Several “experts” have asked if she had a previous covid infection or had a recent booster…they have also asked about ventilation systems in her dorms. They have even directed all to refer the similarities to Ms Casten.
Nothing brings these young people back to life, but some closure and inspection on the causes may prevent other deaths so I thank you for posting your investigation. It’s been a very difficult past month for my son, her family, and mine. Godspeed Jessica.
I'm so sorry to hear about this tragedy, no matter the cause(s).
It's unlikely that the Cook County ME would have jurisdiction if she died in Colorado. You'll need to contact the coroner/ME there, I believe. I don't know Colorado's laws around that.
Poor girl, sounded like she felt quite ill but thought it was a stomach virus or something mild…didn’t want to wake her family. God rest all their souls.
Cardio events can present with nausea. Spike protein is toxic to the cardiovascular system Some get the shot and produce a bit of spike and others make massive amounts for months. Clostridium could be if she had been on antibiotics weeks to months earlier , like when she had covid.
Yet, later this week, will be considering on adding the shots to the childhood schedule, the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) will transfer liability for vaccine injuries to the federal government’s National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP), allowing for Pfizer and Moderna to finally bring an FDA approved shot to the market without opening itself up to lawsuits. Moreover, it will act as another windfall for companies that have already brought in hundreds of billions of dollars in revenues, by requiring these vaccinations for children who attend public schools. Big Pharma $$ moves mountains and we are all just sheep being led to the slaughter.
“Diffuse cerebral edema”. Wonder cause of that. With the washcloth, trash bag, toilet seat up sounds like she had a bad headache that was making her nauseous. Poor girl.
We don’t know that there was headache. Wet Washcloth could’ve been been to relieve fever/feeling hot. (I’ve never thought of using a wet washcloth in response to a headache)
Thank You so very much for a great, but extremely sad article. I am sending this to my state Senator here in Southern Illinois and others I can think of. Thank You so much for great articles.
I have been able to find studies on the increase in heart related incidents after having COVID-19, as well as heart related incidents after the COVID vaccination. What is more difficult to find is increases in heart related incidents after have BOTH the COVID vaccination and COVID-19, and if the timing of either of these would be cause for concern.
You are really a horrible person. This goes without saying. But why are you so quick to blame the vaccine and NOT the vascular disease caused by COVID that is far more prevalent than vaccine related myocarditis?
On what grounds did you request the cert? Why did you find it necessary to do so? You are trying to link it to her vax status and wrote your column in such a way to present that while giving yourself plausible deniability. You have zero credentials to be presenting any of this as data. You just have a sick fascination with dead teenagers.
Grounds? Under FOIA, and paid the requisite fees for each document.
Are you familiar with Illinois law? Are you aware that any investigation conducted by a county Coroner is subject to FOIA? In fact, this week, I requested two other autopsies conducted in DuPage, and another in Cook. You can too. Where and when the coroner has jurisdiction over a death inquiry, taxpayers have a right to examine that inquiry.
Per the DuPage Coroner FOIA officer, they received numerous requests for Ms Casten’s autopsy, including from media.
I have no fascination with dead teenagers; I have an interest in Covid-related matters, including how the govt’s response to the virus has affected children and families.
There was widespread speculation about Ms. Casten’s death - chiefly, that drugs were involved. My main interest in this report per se was to a) subtly respond to those rumors, b) verify/analyze what two elected officials (the congressman & the coroner) said about it.
I need no credentials to post a legally-obtained document, restate the facts in the document, and invite discussion.
Unexpected pediatric deaths of any kind are a matter of public interest, health, and safety. Always.
Puzzling that you subscribed to my Substack, given how awful you believe I am.
P.S. I’m not sure why you said I presented the findings as “data.” Obviously, it’s a single case, with plenty of qualitative and quantitative “data” therein.
I highlighted things I noticed, but in no way did I present this as indicative/representative of a particular pattern.
You're confused and uninformed on this topic, so I'll do my best to instruct you.
This is not an invasion of privacy. If it were, the report wouldn't be obtainable via FOIA. County coroners in Illinois maintain a fee schedule for these documents. They redact parts they consider to be an invasion of privacy under statute. In other words, this was NOT a private autopsy; it was taxpayer-funded, and conducted by an elected official. So you're contradicting the Coroner's office when you say that the receipt and posting of this redacted public document is some kind of violation.
Certain deaths automatically fall within the jurisdiction of the coroner, by their nature. Unexpected deaths occurring at home are one such instance. This death also involved a police investigation, which I also obtained under FOIA.
Many deaths the coroner investigates don't get elevated to public awareness, simply because of the circumstances, or because of who the person was.
In this case, we had the sudden death of a healthy teen and daughter of a U.S. Congressman, in her sleep. Needless to say, there is a public interest in reviewing the coroner's work in determining cause of death.
There's also a need to squash unsubstantiated rumors about the death being drug-related, booster-instigated, etc.
I'm sincerely asking: how do the autopsy reports hurt Mr. Casten politically in any way? Further, how do they change or challenge what the family said publicly in June or this month about the circumstances, manner of death, etc?
I would argue there's not a whole lot in the report that's different from what was already known and shared by them.
Even after the family made its statement earlier this month, people were saying it was the vaccine, it was drugs, etc.
This death was a tragedy. The worst part is not knowing what caused it. I sincerely hope that more eyes on the report may, somehow, eventually, led to a determination about what caused it.
But it's disingenuous to assert that the legally-obtained, redacted autopsy report of a Congressman's daughter who died suddenly is best kept "secret," as though there's something to hide.
It isn’t “secret.” It also shouldn’t be posted publicly by an admittedly opposed political blogger. Let the doctors and coroner determine the cause, not the court of public opinion. Have some decency and empathy.
What in the world caused you to 1) FOIA an autopsy report for this poor girl?! 2) Post the autopsy report for the world, and especially her family, to see?! 3) Insinuate there is some nefarious connection between several teen deaths in DuPage County?
This is vile and rude, even for you. I can only suspect you posted this so close to election day to make a lame attempt at discrediting Rep Casten’s candidacy. Using the tragic death of his teenage daughter to create some utterly unfounded conspiracy theory or reason for anyone to think him unfit for office is just plain ugly. You are truly heartless.
Many of these critics are trolls who don’t understand the law, what a public record is, or what an elected & taxpayer-funded coroner does.
They’ve been after me for 2.5 years, because I somehow pose a threat to their agenda and worldview. Dealing with them is the price of public discourse.
Thought I responded to this, but must've been one of your other replies. See those comments for my response to your claims about my motives, the report somehow discrediting Rep Casten, and that I've written a conspiracy theory. Thanks.
No single unexpected natural death tells us much of anything at this point. Hard to tell if these deaths are simply getting more media coverage, or are higher incidence. As another commenter already said, it will likely take years - not to mention in-depth examination of full records by researchers/experts to discern real patterns and draw conclusions.
Statistically-speaking, for the present time, the far bigger concern when it comes to adolescent/young adult mortality increases in America is drug OD, suicide, & homicide.
Also, driving a car is still the biggest risk most teens carey every day. Let’s not lose sight of that.
I came to post my standard "let's not make the same mistakes of the pandemicists - ascribing deaths that fall within normal variance as something unique (there are ~1,100 heart related deaths in the 15-24 cohort annually)".
On the other hand this was also in my newsfeed today...
Yes, I cited that story in the last paragraphs of my post.
As my friends could tell you, I’ve been anything but quick to jump on the “vax did it” bandwagon, for the reason you mentioned. It’s entirely possible - likely, even - that these events are being reported more in the media, vs happening at a higher incidence level.
Substack app on iOS has been nearly unusable the past month (scrolling gets stuck). They say it's happening to some users and haven't pinpointed why (last I heard).
:) That's my excuse not catching you referenced it. And I know you are moderate on this, it is getting ridiculous, even for me, how often this is hitting the news though...
Will be years before we have the real data to tease out the signal and no one will care either way. Sigh.
What IDPH, NCHS, and CDC will do with the info they receive is anyone’s guess.
I’m told that the part about damage to the right ventricular needs elaboration. As I understand it, kids/teens don’t typically have ventricular dilation.
Right sided ventricular dilation was a significant finding in some of the sickest inpatients that tended toward higher mortality (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33980426/)
But here’s what’s odd - those patients were often vented or on BiPap, lungs whited out; extremely ill. This girl had no cardiac history, was actually really healthy.
But. That, along with the cerebral edema, seems to suggest she may have had a sudden and extreme spike in blood pressure. And the bacteria that was in her blood - I am really confused why that wasn’t explored, because it’s an extremely lethal one usually found in patients with underlying malignancies. The mortality rate tends to be close to 80% within a few hours. If someone was in a state of suppressed immunity (which is really common after viral infection and in some Covid patients could last quite a while), then it could conceivably migrate from the gut into the blood. But she didn’t have any signs of sepsis.
Just for context/comparison, DuPage County is the second most-populous in Illinois. We have had zero covid-related deaths under age 20. Zero meaning "none". :)
You are right about the bacteria, i.e., the rarity.
Oddly, it's the second death in the county of an adolescent girl this calendar year that mentions a clostridium bacterium. The first was a 12-YO girl in January who had been treated for food poisoning, went home, and then died a few days later. Autopsy attributed cause to small bowel necrosis die to clostridium perfirnges (which is associated with food borne-acquired illness).
She tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 in autopsy as well. No symptoms reported prior to death (besides the vomiting from the food poisoning.) She was not vaccinated.
Given that both girls tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, it's reasonable to wonder about the interplay between SC2 and clostridium-family bacteria.
It could be worth poking around at. I would be curious to know if either of them were showing inflammatory markers in the blood, or if they were neutropenic at time of death.
Unjabbed senior, had Cov in Jan 2022. Neutrophils & platelets slightly low, as well as low NA, K. Elevated D-Dimer, Ferritin, LDH, Troponin, VIt B12, FOLSER, CK. Could that be indicative of sepsis?
Hard to know if someone has signs of sepsis shortly before death, when no one is there to witness. It can be fast-moving.
Ah yes good point — forgot it was not in hospital. Asking of course if such an incentive could lead to it being added, but yeah looks like a lot going on there too.
Jessica-I have just found your posting and I’m intrigued for personal purposes. My son’s girlfriend, whose primary residence is in Cook County in northwest suburbs, died suddenly and unexpectedly while at college in Colorado in early December. The rumors, like Ms Castens, were that it was drug related. But it wasn’t…she was an otherwise happy, healthy, vibrant young woman, 17 years old, that was packing for a trip to see her boyfriend (my son) in another state. After talking to my son, her mom, and a friend with excitement for her flight and trip, she never made her flight and within less than 2 hours of talking to all she was found collapsed and dead in her room next to her packed bag. We are still a week away from autopsy results, and thank you for informing us all that coroner related autopsies can be located thru FOIA access for a fee.
Several “experts” have asked if she had a previous covid infection or had a recent booster…they have also asked about ventilation systems in her dorms. They have even directed all to refer the similarities to Ms Casten.
Nothing brings these young people back to life, but some closure and inspection on the causes may prevent other deaths so I thank you for posting your investigation. It’s been a very difficult past month for my son, her family, and mine. Godspeed Jessica.
I'm so sorry to hear about this tragedy, no matter the cause(s).
It's unlikely that the Cook County ME would have jurisdiction if she died in Colorado. You'll need to contact the coroner/ME there, I believe. I don't know Colorado's laws around that.
Poor girl, sounded like she felt quite ill but thought it was a stomach virus or something mild…didn’t want to wake her family. God rest all their souls.
Correct that it sounds like she felt sick to her stomach.
Hard to say if the baterium detected is to blame.
Cardio events can present with nausea. Spike protein is toxic to the cardiovascular system Some get the shot and produce a bit of spike and others make massive amounts for months. Clostridium could be if she had been on antibiotics weeks to months earlier , like when she had covid.
Chances are very low that she was put on antibiotics for covid, because doctors have been discouraged from doing that.
Clostridium could have also been the result of a suppressed immune system. Body encountered it and didn't fight it off.
Yet, later this week, will be considering on adding the shots to the childhood schedule, the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) will transfer liability for vaccine injuries to the federal government’s National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP), allowing for Pfizer and Moderna to finally bring an FDA approved shot to the market without opening itself up to lawsuits. Moreover, it will act as another windfall for companies that have already brought in hundreds of billions of dollars in revenues, by requiring these vaccinations for children who attend public schools. Big Pharma $$ moves mountains and we are all just sheep being led to the slaughter.
“Diffuse cerebral edema”. Wonder cause of that. With the washcloth, trash bag, toilet seat up sounds like she had a bad headache that was making her nauseous. Poor girl.
Would guess this has something to do with the headache+nausea:
“lt is reported that Ms. Casten had two Truly hard seltzers while at the "get- together"
= two beers I think
https://www.mashed.com/413219/how-much-alcohol-is-in-truly-hard-seltzer/
We don’t know that there was headache. Wet Washcloth could’ve been been to relieve fever/feeling hot. (I’ve never thought of using a wet washcloth in response to a headache)
Yes thats true — unknown if headache, but bag set close to the bed seems a good bet for nausea.
Kevin McKernan shared this the other day, article title; "SARS-CoV-2 spike protein as a bacterial lipopolysaccharide delivery system in an overzealous inflammatory cascade" https://twitter.com/Kevin_McKernan/status/1581783065537351680?s=20&t=DOOUoPkPXMf2UopFv_XL4g .. alcohol is known to increase bacterial count as well (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.alcohol.2008.03.131), .. so the bacterial count is kind of interesting but also easy to look too much into this just has well.
Thank You so very much for a great, but extremely sad article. I am sending this to my state Senator here in Southern Illinois and others I can think of. Thank You so much for great articles.
You’re welcome!
Wow! You’re like a legit investigative reporter ❤️❤️
So glad to have found your writings.
I have been able to find studies on the increase in heart related incidents after having COVID-19, as well as heart related incidents after the COVID vaccination. What is more difficult to find is increases in heart related incidents after have BOTH the COVID vaccination and COVID-19, and if the timing of either of these would be cause for concern.
You are really a horrible person. This goes without saying. But why are you so quick to blame the vaccine and NOT the vascular disease caused by COVID that is far more prevalent than vaccine related myocarditis?
I’m a horrible person because….?
Where did I blame the vaccine?
Did you read the full report? There is no evidence whatsoever that SARS-CoV-2 infection contributed to her death.
If it did, then we should have even more questions about the efficacy of being fully vaccinated & boosted.
On what grounds did you request the cert? Why did you find it necessary to do so? You are trying to link it to her vax status and wrote your column in such a way to present that while giving yourself plausible deniability. You have zero credentials to be presenting any of this as data. You just have a sick fascination with dead teenagers.
Grounds? Under FOIA, and paid the requisite fees for each document.
Are you familiar with Illinois law? Are you aware that any investigation conducted by a county Coroner is subject to FOIA? In fact, this week, I requested two other autopsies conducted in DuPage, and another in Cook. You can too. Where and when the coroner has jurisdiction over a death inquiry, taxpayers have a right to examine that inquiry.
Per the DuPage Coroner FOIA officer, they received numerous requests for Ms Casten’s autopsy, including from media.
I have no fascination with dead teenagers; I have an interest in Covid-related matters, including how the govt’s response to the virus has affected children and families.
There was widespread speculation about Ms. Casten’s death - chiefly, that drugs were involved. My main interest in this report per se was to a) subtly respond to those rumors, b) verify/analyze what two elected officials (the congressman & the coroner) said about it.
I need no credentials to post a legally-obtained document, restate the facts in the document, and invite discussion.
Unexpected pediatric deaths of any kind are a matter of public interest, health, and safety. Always.
Puzzling that you subscribed to my Substack, given how awful you believe I am.
I’ve removed your subscription.
Take care.
P.S. I’m not sure why you said I presented the findings as “data.” Obviously, it’s a single case, with plenty of qualitative and quantitative “data” therein.
I highlighted things I noticed, but in no way did I present this as indicative/representative of a particular pattern.
You're now banned from commenting.
Take care.
You're confused and uninformed on this topic, so I'll do my best to instruct you.
This is not an invasion of privacy. If it were, the report wouldn't be obtainable via FOIA. County coroners in Illinois maintain a fee schedule for these documents. They redact parts they consider to be an invasion of privacy under statute. In other words, this was NOT a private autopsy; it was taxpayer-funded, and conducted by an elected official. So you're contradicting the Coroner's office when you say that the receipt and posting of this redacted public document is some kind of violation.
Certain deaths automatically fall within the jurisdiction of the coroner, by their nature. Unexpected deaths occurring at home are one such instance. This death also involved a police investigation, which I also obtained under FOIA.
Many deaths the coroner investigates don't get elevated to public awareness, simply because of the circumstances, or because of who the person was.
In this case, we had the sudden death of a healthy teen and daughter of a U.S. Congressman, in her sleep. Needless to say, there is a public interest in reviewing the coroner's work in determining cause of death.
There's also a need to squash unsubstantiated rumors about the death being drug-related, booster-instigated, etc.
Public interest? Or sadistic interest? Or, maybe, political interest? Sad. And sick.
Public interest only.
You can hear me talk about it a bit with Jeanne Ives here: https://www.breakthrough-ideas.com/videos
I'm sincerely asking: how do the autopsy reports hurt Mr. Casten politically in any way? Further, how do they change or challenge what the family said publicly in June or this month about the circumstances, manner of death, etc?
I would argue there's not a whole lot in the report that's different from what was already known and shared by them.
Even after the family made its statement earlier this month, people were saying it was the vaccine, it was drugs, etc.
This death was a tragedy. The worst part is not knowing what caused it. I sincerely hope that more eyes on the report may, somehow, eventually, led to a determination about what caused it.
But it's disingenuous to assert that the legally-obtained, redacted autopsy report of a Congressman's daughter who died suddenly is best kept "secret," as though there's something to hide.
It isn’t “secret.” It also shouldn’t be posted publicly by an admittedly opposed political blogger. Let the doctors and coroner determine the cause, not the court of public opinion. Have some decency and empathy.
Are you aware of this case? https://www.nbcchicago.com/news/local/geneva-high-school-athletic-trainer-saves-student-after-homecoming-collapse/2957138/
I was not. Thank you. Will update post to add, for reference.
Geneva HS is Kane County, next to DuPage.
And: https://www.wthr.com/article/news/health/monrovia-hs-staff-use-cpr-aed-to-save-student-high-school-indiana-cardiac-event-indiana/531-525a0b62-1d72-4edd-8dff-b2f4fd097c88
Yes confirmation bias…
Revisiting this.
Now with the IG4 studies out, maybe we can make better sense out of this?
Yes, perhaps.
It's not my line of expertise, but I can republish with links to relevant commentary on the IG4 studies.
What in the world caused you to 1) FOIA an autopsy report for this poor girl?! 2) Post the autopsy report for the world, and especially her family, to see?! 3) Insinuate there is some nefarious connection between several teen deaths in DuPage County?
This is vile and rude, even for you. I can only suspect you posted this so close to election day to make a lame attempt at discrediting Rep Casten’s candidacy. Using the tragic death of his teenage daughter to create some utterly unfounded conspiracy theory or reason for anyone to think him unfit for office is just plain ugly. You are truly heartless.
I would like to thank Jessica for her work and dedication.
Gwen is dead and cannot be upset by anything.
Her dad is a congressman and a public person.
The manner of her death is of utmost importance to the general public.
Thanks, Igor. You’re correct, of course.
Many of these critics are trolls who don’t understand the law, what a public record is, or what an elected & taxpayer-funded coroner does.
They’ve been after me for 2.5 years, because I somehow pose a threat to their agenda and worldview. Dealing with them is the price of public discourse.
I am thinking of writing a long article on Gwen Casten. Gathering materials and this is why I am here today
The file I linked at the top is all available records from the coroner.
Thought I responded to this, but must've been one of your other replies. See those comments for my response to your claims about my motives, the report somehow discrediting Rep Casten, and that I've written a conspiracy theory. Thanks.
Ms. Casten is mentioned in this article. The findings in this article suggest that every young person who took the Covid shots should be routinely screened for Myocarditis/cardiac decline. They can have Myocarditis and not know it until it is too late. https://www.theepochtimes.com/health/people-dying-in-their-sleep-linked-to-vaccines-explains-dr-peter-mccullough-cardiologist_4806813.html
The study cited is an interesting one, for sure.
No single unexpected natural death tells us much of anything at this point. Hard to tell if these deaths are simply getting more media coverage, or are higher incidence. As another commenter already said, it will likely take years - not to mention in-depth examination of full records by researchers/experts to discern real patterns and draw conclusions.
Statistically-speaking, for the present time, the far bigger concern when it comes to adolescent/young adult mortality increases in America is drug OD, suicide, & homicide.
Also, driving a car is still the biggest risk most teens carey every day. Let’s not lose sight of that.
I came to post my standard "let's not make the same mistakes of the pandemicists - ascribing deaths that fall within normal variance as something unique (there are ~1,100 heart related deaths in the 15-24 cohort annually)".
On the other hand this was also in my newsfeed today...
https://www.today.com/news/news/teen-17-dies-suddently-collapsing-choir-event-rcna52891
Yes, I cited that story in the last paragraphs of my post.
As my friends could tell you, I’ve been anything but quick to jump on the “vax did it” bandwagon, for the reason you mentioned. It’s entirely possible - likely, even - that these events are being reported more in the media, vs happening at a higher incidence level.
Substack app on iOS has been nearly unusable the past month (scrolling gets stuck). They say it's happening to some users and haven't pinpointed why (last I heard).
:) That's my excuse not catching you referenced it. And I know you are moderate on this, it is getting ridiculous, even for me, how often this is hitting the news though...
Will be years before we have the real data to tease out the signal and no one will care either way. Sigh.
I removed your comment with obscenities and personal attacks, but will respond to this.
You're a DuPage resident, yes? Librarian in Naperville 203?
What is your objection here? Please clarify. Thanks.
I don't see where I've blamed either covid or the covid vax/booster for this death.
Can you point me to where I've done that?
So, indeed it may not be vax related? Is that what I can get off this?
True underlying cause of the arrhythmia was not determined.
TMK, this death is not being attributed to Covid.
What IDPH, NCHS, and CDC will do with the info they receive is anyone’s guess.
I’m told that the part about damage to the right ventricular needs elaboration. As I understand it, kids/teens don’t typically have ventricular dilation.
Right sided ventricular dilation was a significant finding in some of the sickest inpatients that tended toward higher mortality (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33980426/)
But here’s what’s odd - those patients were often vented or on BiPap, lungs whited out; extremely ill. This girl had no cardiac history, was actually really healthy.
But. That, along with the cerebral edema, seems to suggest she may have had a sudden and extreme spike in blood pressure. And the bacteria that was in her blood - I am really confused why that wasn’t explored, because it’s an extremely lethal one usually found in patients with underlying malignancies. The mortality rate tends to be close to 80% within a few hours. If someone was in a state of suppressed immunity (which is really common after viral infection and in some Covid patients could last quite a while), then it could conceivably migrate from the gut into the blood. But she didn’t have any signs of sepsis.
But I’m telling you, that bug is really rare. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11736823/
Thanks for this input.
Just for context/comparison, DuPage County is the second most-populous in Illinois. We have had zero covid-related deaths under age 20. Zero meaning "none". :)
You are right about the bacteria, i.e., the rarity.
Oddly, it's the second death in the county of an adolescent girl this calendar year that mentions a clostridium bacterium. The first was a 12-YO girl in January who had been treated for food poisoning, went home, and then died a few days later. Autopsy attributed cause to small bowel necrosis die to clostridium perfirnges (which is associated with food borne-acquired illness).
She tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 in autopsy as well. No symptoms reported prior to death (besides the vomiting from the food poisoning.) She was not vaccinated.
Given that both girls tested positive for SARS-CoV-2, it's reasonable to wonder about the interplay between SC2 and clostridium-family bacteria.
It could be worth poking around at. I would be curious to know if either of them were showing inflammatory markers in the blood, or if they were neutropenic at time of death.
Unjabbed senior, had Cov in Jan 2022. Neutrophils & platelets slightly low, as well as low NA, K. Elevated D-Dimer, Ferritin, LDH, Troponin, VIt B12, FOLSER, CK. Could that be indicative of sepsis?
Hard to know if someone has signs of sepsis shortly before death, when no one is there to witness. It can be fast-moving.
Is there a financial incentive in IL to have covid appear on the death certificate?
You mean for non-hospital deaths? Not directly, AFAIK.
There's the federal funeral assistance program.
Ah yes good point — forgot it was not in hospital. Asking of course if such an incentive could lead to it being added, but yeah looks like a lot going on there too.