Father of 5 Dies from the Flu at Trenton's Oakwood Southshore

A 41-year-old father of five from Monroe died Sunday from the flu at Oakwood Southshore Medical Center in Trenton.

The official cause of death for Chris Wright was Influenza A, but “we expect that it was probably H1N1,” said Monroe County Health Director Kim Comerzan, according to a story in the Toledo Blade.

Wright's passing brings the total of flu-related deaths in Michigan to at least about a dozen this season.

Wright didn't receive a flu vaccination as he was typically very healthy, according to the Toledo Blade story. He worked as a postal carrier in Ypsilanti and prior to that, worked as a reporter for The News-Herald Newspapers.

"Chris was a loyal and hard working man who had a very dry sense of humor," his online obituary says. "The two most important things to him were his family and his friends. He loved spending time with his children and step children treating them to his silly sense of humor and words of wisdom.

"He had a life long love of baseball. He began playing T-ball as a boy and continued playing all the way through high school. He also collected baseball cards and was an avid Detroit Tiger fan."

For more information on the flu, check out information provided by the Centers for Disease Control.

Read the hospital's statement.