Letlow’s death was shocker
Published 5:50 pm Sunday, January 3, 2021
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I didn’t know Luke Letlow, the congressman-elect who died from COVID-19 at age 41. However, from what I have read about him it is obvious the state has lost a young public official who faced an extremely bright future.
Letlow was to become Louisiana’s youngest U.S. representative at his inauguration following his recent election to represent the state’s 5th Congressional District, which is comprised of 24 parishes. He won the runoff with 62 percent of the vote.
The death of Letlow was caused from a coronavirus-fueled heart attack. He is believed to be the first federally elected official to die from the infection.
U.S. Rep. Ralph Abraham, the official Letlow was scheduled to replace, told The News-Star of Monroe, “Luke played a vital and integral part of every decision I’ve made in Congress.” Letlow was Abraham’s chief of staff.
Abraham added, “There are no words for this loss. There was no one like Luke Letlow, and there was no one who loved this state and its people more.”
Letlow said in a Dec. 7 interview, “When Ralph decided not to run, I knew my experience could be valuable and important to represent the 5th District from elective service rather than behind the scenes as I had for my entire career.
“I’ve learned from some of the best and I want to apply that knowledge to leverage the best for the 5th District. I want to make a difference. I’m going to make a difference.”
Like so many others, I was shocked that a healthy person in his early 40s could die from a virus less than two weeks after being hospitalized. Dr. G.E. Ghali, part of the team of doctors who treated Letlow, said he died after suffering a “cardiac event.”
The Advocate reported that the state Department of Health said of the nearly 7,400 deaths in Louisiana confirmed and found likely to be linked to the virus, about 4 percent of people had no existing health conditions and about 365 were under the age of 49. Just 3 percent of the deaths were among people between the ages of 40 and 49, making Letlow one of 227 coronavirus-related deaths in his age range.
The average age of a person who has died from the coronavirus in Louisiana is 75. The newspaper said it is still not well understood which younger, healthier people may be at a higher risk of complications or why the virus spares others with mild symptoms, if any at all, while proving fatal to others.
Susan Hassig, a Tulane University epidemiologist, said, “This virus doesn’t stay in the lungs. It goes to the heart, the kidneys, and the intestines. It messes with really, really, really important organ systems. That’s what people don’t really seem to get.”
Dr. Julio Figueroa, chief of infectious disease at LSU Health New Orleans, said in the rare instances in which a young or otherwise healthy person gets seriously sick from the disease, they often begin to deteriorate once the virus enters other organs. The virus has also been found to strike at the body’s vascular functions, which potentially could cause clotting that leads to even more serious complications such as heart attacks or strokes.
Figueroa said, “It’s a slow train crash. People try their best, and we’ve learned a lot of how to treat these folks, but the ones who end up dying die in a pretty slow way as organs start malfunctioning.”
The Department of Health said high blood pressure, with which many of us have to deal, remains the most prevalent existing health condition found in people who’ve died from the illness in Louisiana, at nearly 64 percent of all patients. Heart, kidney and neurological ailments, as well as diabetes, were also prevalent in a significant number of people.
The late state Rep. Reggie Bagala, R-Cut Off, died from the coronavirus in April. Eight other Louisiana public officials have had the virus but had no lasting effects.
Tyler Bridges of The Advocate wrote about covering Letlow’s campaign and called him a cautious campaigner. However, that wasn’t the case for others at some of the campaign stops, he said.
Talking about one campaign stop, Bridges said, “I noticed that none of the 15 people there was wearing a mask.” Bridges and an Advocate photographer were wearing masks, and he said Letlow was wearing one when he showed up 10 minutes later.
Bridges, at the end of his story, asked an important question: “I was struck in Ruston and Amite at the refusal of people to wear masks or worry about COVID-19,” he said. “They should know now about Letlow’s shocking death. Will they now take the virus seriously?”
Many of us can’t understand why the virus hasn’t been taken seriously by so many, and perhaps that is one reason why Letlow’s death struck a nerve. If their attitudes change, that could be Letlow’s greatest legacy.
Greg Hilburn/USA Today Network
