Joshua Dean, a former quality auditor at Boeing supplier Spirit AeroSystems and one of the first whistleblowers to allege Spirit leadership had ignored manufacturing defects on the 737 MAX, died Tuesday morning after a struggle with a sudden, fast-spreading infection.

Known as Josh, Dean lived in Wichita, Kan., where Spirit is based. He was 45, had been in good health and was noted for having a healthy lifestyle.

He died after two weeks in critical condition, his aunt Carol Parsons said.

  • Blue@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    All these accidental coincidence deaths starting to remind me of a certain Eurasia country

  • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    So uhh this is awkward. But this is their second whistleblower to die? At what point do we uhhh investigate this?

  • NaibofTabr@infosec.pub
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    8 months ago

    Dean became ill and went to the hospital because he was having trouble breathing just over two weeks ago. He was intubated and developed pneumonia and then a serious bacterial infection, MRSA.

    Hmm, there’s nothing more specific on the “having trouble breathing”… possibly suspicious, but also possibly an allergic reaction… for all we know he was stung by a bee or something.

    MRSA is unfortunately not suspicious at all, it is far too commonly acquired in hospitals.

    MRSA is also a leading cause of hospital-acquired and ventilator-associated pneumonia. Hospital-acquired pneumonia (HAP), or nosocomial pneumonia, is characterized as pneumonia developing 48 hours or more after hospital admission, indicating that it was not incubating at the time of admission. Ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) is defined as pneumonia developing 48 hours or more after implementation of endotracheal intubation and mechanical ventilation and was not present before intubation. The microbiological etiology of these two conditions is similar and carries grave prognosis associated with poor overall outcomes.

    National Library of Medicine: MRSA

    In the larger context of the Boeing incidents, this death seems suspicious. But the circumstances of this death aren’t very suspicious otherwise, this could easily have been a minor issue that became fatal due to a hospital-acquired staph infection. It’s probably a bad idea to jump to conclusions.

    • huginn@feddit.it
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      8 months ago

      Hmm, there’s nothing more specific on the “having trouble breathing”

      Because it was almost certainly COVID but they didn’t test for it, or didn’t release it as a cause of death.

      • NaibofTabr@infosec.pub
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        8 months ago

        Yeah, I wasn’t going to bring up COVID because I can only handle so many conspiracy nuts at a time, but this does seem like a possibility. There doesn’t seem to be recent data.

        The pneumonia and infection could have made COVID testing impossible or just low priority compared to the life-threatening issues, so we probably won’t get a definite answer on that.

    • ZeroTemp@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      Unfortunately getting pneumonia and it going septic is not an uncommon occurrence. Once you are septic if you don’t get the right antibiotics in you quickly you’ll go into septic shock which has a 40% mortality rate.

    • werefreeatlast@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      The only conspiracy theory I can bring to the table is that MRSA is probably easy to weaponize. A nurse or visitor could have easily deployed a dirty tactic such as just visiting a patient with MRSA at another hospital and then coming to this hospital to visit the victim. Just touching infected areas of one patient and then touching vulnerable areas on the victim is enough.

      This is why you don’t want to end up in a hospice where there’s a history of MRSA. You will eventually get it.

  • xmunk@sh.itjust.works
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    8 months ago

    Someone with a lot of money probably did something extremely heinous… that, or a PR team just landed the absolute worst coincidence.

    • Signtist@lemm.ee
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      8 months ago

      I haven’t heard anyone irl talking about Boeing recently, and barely even saw anything online a week after the initial death. While it pisses me off to no end, this incident will blow over just as easily for Boeing.

        • I_Has_A_Hat@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          If you’re in the US, you have very few non-Boeing options. Especially if you’re trying to pick affordable flights.

          • Signtist@lemm.ee
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            8 months ago

            Yeah, if anything, I expect people to book whatever flights they were already going to book, and just crack jokes like “I hope I make it!”

  • RainfallSonata@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    A local politician in my area died recently of an unknown infection. No one will say anything more about it. I realize the Boeing whistleblower was probably a hit. But are we not concerned in general about deadly infections escaping and starting the next pandemic, as if using them for hit jobs weren’t bad enough?

  • casmael@lemm.ee
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    8 months ago

    Wait wait was this the guy who was transferred to a different project as ‘punishment’ by Boeing or someone else?

    • 4am@lemm.ee
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      8 months ago

      This is a new one who died from a sudden and severe MSRA infection…

      Both were being represented by the same law firm in the same case against Boeing and Spirit (Boeings contractor for parts and assembly).

      • casmael@lemm.ee
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        8 months ago

        Ahh okay cool different guy 👍👍

        Also probably not bumped off by the big B but then again who knows at this point lol

  • heavy@sh.itjust.works
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    8 months ago

    Interesting aside, as I understand it, Spirit Aerosystem is the company that was ultimately contracted to repair the emergency exit door plug issue and failed to properly re-install the securing bolts when they were done.

  • Optional@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    Strange unexplained fatal illness, to otherwise healthy guy, outta nowhere right after the deposition.

    Goddamn, Boeing. Thats some CIA shit

  • nondescripthandle@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    8 months ago

    When it comes to dealing with those opposing any facets of the MIC, the US is already a fascist state. Your freedoms do not extend to any part of the MIC, they exist above you and your needs

    • NaibofTabr@infosec.pub
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      8 months ago

      Imagine talking about the US being a fascist state because a guy died in a hospital from MRSA… and then probably still believing that you’re right. What a way to live.

      Remember folks, extreme views (of every stripe) harm the discussion and impede progress and are generally wrong because they ignore facts in order to support the narrative (they bend reality to fit their story, rather than bend their story to fit reality).