Swine flu kills Georgia girl, 10

By Craig Schneider

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Health officials said Thursday that a 10-year-old girl in the Augusta area died Saturday of swine flu. Summer Rockefeller, a fifth-grader, is among a handful of Georgia children who died of the virus. She is the second child in the state who died of the illness without having an underlying health condition, officials said.

“Doctors still don’t have all the answers” about swine flu, the girl’s mother, Elizabeth Rockefeller, said in a written statement. “We need to remember to pray for all affected, young and old.”

The grief of the family, who live in Harlem near Augusta, has been compounded by financial problems. Brian Rockefeller lost his job prior to his daughter’s illness, and her mother lost her job during the five weeks that Summer was hospitalized.

They have no health insurance to pay the medical bills, and no life insurance for the funeral costs.

In Georgia, more than 500 people have been hospitalized and 27 have died from swine flu.