LRN PM Newscall April 6

An East Baton Rouge Parish mother loses her baby after her COVID-19 symptoms resulted in the child’s premature birth. Matt Doyle has more.

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Saints legendary kicker Tom Dempsey has died from complications of the coronavirus. Jeff Palermo has the story…

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Normally. flu activity goes down at this time of the year.   However, State Immunization Director Dr. Frank Welch says the state has not yet seen that dip as one in ten visits to a doctor is for flu-like symptoms.

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Both coronavirus and flu have similar symptoms.  Welch says with the high rates of testing for COVID-19, the math paints a picture of flu activity being much higher than normal.

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Many of the spread mitigation efforts of coronavirus run parallel to combatting the flu as well.  Welch says the one big difference maker is having a vaccine for the flu.  While it doesn’t guarantee someone won’t get the flu, it will reduce the severity of the illness and reduce the chance of hospitalization.

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A one day old infant in East Baton Rouge Parish dies after being prematurely born due to complications stemming from her mother’s COVID-19 case.

EBR Coroner Beau Clark says the child’s death is being counted in the parish’s total COVID fatalities, because…

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He adds this is the first such case in Louisiana, but similar incidents have been reported nationwide.

The baby will be tested for coronavirus, but Clark says it’s not clear yet whether the virus is vertically transmissible.

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Clark says the CDC is in contact with the hospital where this occurred to collect data on whether the child itself was infected.

Pregnant women are considered a COVID-19 high-risk group. Clark explains why…

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Former Saints kicker Tom Dempsey, who once held the NFL record for the longest made field goal, has died from complications of the coronavirus. He was 73. Demspey kicked 159 field goals in eleven NFL season, even though he was born without toes on his right foot. His former teammate and ex-Saints Q-B Billy Kilmer…

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In 1970 at old Tulane Stadium, Dempsey booted a 63-yard field goal as the Saints beat the Detroit Lions on the record-breaking kick. NFL analyst Mike Detillier says Dempsey told him he never saw the ball go through the uprights

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Dempsey’s record stood for more than four decades. Matt Prater broke the record in 2013 with a 64-yard field goal in Denver. Dempsey only played for two seasons with the Saints. Detillier remembers the two appeared together at a public event in 2011 and fans stood in a long line to get Dempsey’s autograph

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Dr. Ray Authement, who served as the president of UL Lafayette for 34 years, has died.  Upon his retirement in 2008, he was the longest-serving public university president in the United States.  Current UL Lafayette President Joe Savoie says Authement’s impact on the campus can still be seen today.

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During Authement’s administration, the school’s name changed from USL to the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.  Savoie says it was Autement’s own time in college that guided his handling of a student’s experience.

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Savoie says Authement started at the school as a math professor.  Upon his retirement, he came back to the University to teach math again.

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Authement died Sunday at the age of 91.