Paulding County coroner confirms 2 deaths; patients had flu-related symptoms

PAULDING COUNTY, Ga. — The Georgia Bureau of Investigation is working to find out whether a 17 and 29-year-old from Paulding County died from the flu.

The county coroner, Lindsey Eberhart Fuller, told Channel 2’s Lauren Pozen that the patients died within a day of one another, but didn't know each other.

Fuller said anytime two healthy people pass away, it's a cause for concern. She said the body of a 17-year-old girl and the body of a 29-year-old man were sent to the GBI for an autopsy.

"You're 17 and 29 in Paulding County and you don’t have some sort of longstanding illness that has been followed by a physician, you're going to get an autopsy because I want to know what happened to you,” Eberhart Fuller said.

On Wednesday, rumors started to swirl on social media about the deaths.

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“There’s just so many calls and messages. People that I know, people that I don’t know, that were just scared to death honestly,” Eberhart Fuller said.

Eberhart Fuller said she went to Facebook to ease people's fears.

She told Pozen as of Thursday, there's no confirmed cases of anything other than flu in Paulding County.

She says because it’s flu season, she is cautioning people to go to the doctor right away if you think you've got it.

It's something Billie Christopher says she knows too well. Christopher told Pozen that she got the flu even though she got the flu shot.

“You're so sick you can't even hold your head up,” Christopher said. “I got to the doctor right away and they gave me Tamiflu. Works miracles.”

Pozen asked the coroner when we can expect to get the autopsy results back. She said it could take anywhere from a couple days to weeks.

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