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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    6 months ago

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

  • Maggoty@lemmy.world
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    6 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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    6 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.

      • afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        10% odds on this death being murder

        The odds of a a 45 year old man dying in the US within a one year period of time is 0.134% based on the 2017 US Social Security actuarial tables. Given that he died within the 75 days of the other murdered whistleblower the odds are of that being natural are

        P(75 days) = 1 - (1 - 0.00134) ^ (75/365.25)

        Which equals 0.0275% or 1 in 3630.

        I have shown you my homework, please show me yours.

    • huginn@feddit.it
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      6 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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        6 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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      6 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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      6 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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    6 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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      6 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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          6 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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            6 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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    6 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?

  • Jaysyn@kbin.social
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    6 months ago

    with a sudden, fast-spreading infection.

    Does this infection have a name?

    • Fermion@mander.xyz
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      6 months ago

      Pnuenonia followed by mrsa.

      This one doesn’t seem as suspicious as “suicide” in between depositions.

      • halcyoncmdr@lemmy.world
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        6 months ago

        In this case the suspicious part is the sudden issue that landed him in the hospital in the first place. The pneumonia and MRSA almost surely came after being admitted.

        • a lil bee 🐝@lemmy.world
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          6 months ago

          That’s not what killed him though. It would be bizarre for Boeing to use their vast resources to hire some special assassin to… make a guy winded enough to go to the hospital? Feels like hearing zebras over horses to me.

            • a lil bee 🐝@lemmy.world
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              6 months ago

              Right, but it would be a bizarre choice of weapon. The odds that some agency gave this man covid so he would go to the hospital to get a form of pneumonia that would then kill him is Qanon level thinking.

              • afraid_of_zombies@lemmy.world
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                6 months ago

                Ok how would you have done it? Keep in mind it has to look like not murder and you already did suicide. I can’t think of a better way. Give him the pathogen that is found everywhere now. Oh that didn’t kill him? Fine grab a wipe out of the biohazard bin and wipe down a table with it in his room.

                As I said a determined 12 year old could pull it off. I literally know two people self-isolating from the virus now.

                • a lil bee 🐝@lemmy.world
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                  6 months ago

                  So, the same company that allegedly had a man shoot himself a few weeks back is now so worried about making it look like an accident, that they’re willing to use a method that has about the same success rate as pushing him off a bicycle? Not buying it. Frankly, it’s so absurd on its face that the burden of proof is overwhelming.

                  Sometimes people die. Sometimes they die with unfortunate timing. Again, the suicide one is sus, investigate that all day. Leave this person’s family and memory alone, they deserve peace.

  • heavy@sh.itjust.works
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    6 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.

  • casmael@lemm.ee
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    6 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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      6 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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        6 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

  • Optional@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

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

    Goddamn, Boeing. Thats some CIA shit