Minnesota Deaths in 2020, Part 2

Thanks again to Lisa Jansa for helping with this analysis.  In this post we are going to look at all deaths with coronavirus in Minnesota in people under the age of 50.  Again, this data pull was as of July 16, I will update it with another pull later this fall.  At that point, there were 21 such deaths in Minnesota, a minuscule fraction of the population in that age range.  It is such a small number that we can go through them almost one-by-one.  In general, these were not healthy people, they had very serious comorbidities.  We are again hindered by variability in certifier approach.  I suspect some failed to list all health conditions.  Obesity was particularly notable as a factor.

The first one, aged 49, was obese, had diabetes and was in end-stage renal disease (very serious kidney disease, without a transplant or diabetes, you die soon).

The next, aged 30, was morbidly obese (very, very overweight) and had auto-immune anemia and the ultimate cause of death was kidney injury.

The third, aged 34, was morbidly obese and had diabetes.

Next, age 47, with obstructive sleep apnea.  I would suspect obesity there as well.

A 43 year-old with diabetes and hypertension.

A 45 year-old, no contributing conditions listed.

49 years old, diabetes, tuberculosis and seizure disorder.

A 48 year-old who died of cardiac arrest, had hypoglycemia (a complication of diabetes), end-stage renal disease and possible sepsis.

A 49 year-old who was morbidly obese.

A 44 year-old who was morbidly obese.

A 26 year-old, no contributing conditions listed.

A 31 year-old, obese.

A 32 year-old, no contributing conditions listed.

A 43 year-old, no contributing conditions listed.

A 35 year-old, morbid obesity, liver disease.

49 years old, obesity, acute kidney failure, sleep apnea, hypothyroidism, panic disorder.

37 years old, muscular atrophy disorder.

35 years old, cardiovascular collapse.

31 year-old, no contributing conditions listed.

A 38 year-old, asthma, hypotension, cardiac issues.

I strongly suspect that the ones with no contributing conditions listed, were just subjective decisions by the certifier not to list pre-existing conditions.  A chart review would be informative.  In terms of place of death, of these 21, 12 died as hospital inpatients.  Six died in an ER or hospital outpatient setting.  Two died at home, one at a long-term care facility, which may have been the place of residence.  Of the five people who did not have contributing conditions listed, three died in the ER/hospital outpatient setting which makes me very suspicious of no underlying conditions.  I would imagine these were very ill patients who at the last minute were taken to an ER.   Death certificates are often revised, so it is possible that in the next pull, some of these certificates will have been modified.