The owner of a Kenosha yoga studio is planning an unconventional fundraiser in honor of her sister, who died from swine flu complications earlier this year. Participants in an all-day yoga-thon scheduled for March 20 will spend upward of 10 hours straight, bending and stretching in the name of the late Jennifer Zalubowski.“I’ve got quite a few people committed to do the whole thing,” said Zalubowski’s sister, Christina Ptak-Pawlaczyk, owner of Yoga and Friends Inc., 5126 Sixth Ave.

Ptak-Pawlaczyk said the event’s proceeds participants are each asked to raise at least $50 will benefit Zalubowski’s daughters, ages 12 and 17. In addition to her children, Zalubowski is survived by her husband, Ken Zalubowski. Zalubowski’s death, sparked by a sudden bout with the flu, shocked the family late last year.

Ptak-Pawlaczyk said her sister became sick in October, saw a doctor and was told she had bronchitis. As her symptoms worsened, she wound up in the emergency room and was eventually tested for the H1N1, or swine flu, virus.

Days later, as the 37-year-old Zalubowski’s breathing became labored, Ptak-Pawlaczyk said her sister was finally diagnosed with swine flu and admitted to a hospital.

There, Zalubowski was hooked to a respirator that family members believe may not have been installed correctly; within two days, she was virtually brain dead, Ptak-Pawlaczyk said.

She said Zalubowski was then flown to Aurora St. Luke’s Medical Center in Milwaukee, where her flu improved but damage to her brain remained. She was moved to an extended-care facility in Milwaukee and stayed there about a month until she died Jan. 7.

“It was literally the most miserable month you could imagine,” Ptak-Pawlaczyk said.

A few months before she died, Ptak-Pawlaczyk said Zalubowski had been laid off from her job as a director at the Kenosha YMCA.

Kenosha County Nursing Director Cynthia Johnson said the county has experienced three swine flu deaths since the pandemic emerged last year. Stating that the county does not name specific individuals, Johnson would not confirm whether Zalubowski is included in that total.

Ptak-Pawlaczyk said she she can fit 20 to 30 participants at the March 20 event. So far about a dozen are signed up, she said.