Failure to Notify Kin in W. Nile Case Criticized

The announcement of the state’s first death from West Nile virus was poorly handled, said Assemblyman Todd Spitzer (R-Orange) on Saturday, adding that hearings will be held this week in Orange County and Sacramento to try to improve the flow of information to the public.

Relatives of James Damiano, 57, of Fullerton said they learned of his cause of death from a Los Angeles Times reporter who called them after an announcement by county health officials.

Spitzer said he plans to meet with county officials and others in Orange County on Monday and Tuesday to gather facts for a Sacramento committee hearing Wednesday “about how Orange County handled or was not able to handle the first death in California of the West Nile virus.”

As the mosquito-borne virus spreads, he said, “there’s a potential here for a healthcare crisis” and the public should have more information, not less.

Citing privacy concerns, the Orange County Health Care Agency announced Thursday only that a 57-year-old man had died June 24 of West Nile virus. Damiano was the only 57-year-old man who died that day, county coroner’s records show.

County health officials said it is the responsibility of hospitals and doctors to inform patients’ families about their conditions, not the health department. They also said that informing neighbors would have little practical effect because it is impossible to pinpoint when and how the victim contracted the disease.

But Damiano’s relatives and residents of the Fullerton board-and-care facility where he lived expressed outrage that health officials did not tell them about his cause of death.

“[The notification] was handled very poorly,” said Damiano’s sister-in-law, Linda, on Saturday.

“It was already being announced on the news and we hadn’t heard about it” from the healthcare agency, she said.

For information on West Nile virus meetings, call Spitzer’s office at (714) 998-0980.