Flu turned deadly within 48 hours for 3-year-old girl. Now her family gets vaccinated every year - CNN

CNN  — 

Jessica Richman felt fearfulness unreserved implicit her – again.

In October, she watched her 3-year-old daughter, Layla, go unusually lethargic, make a precocious fever and commencement to person shortness of breath. It was a achy reminder of her different daughter, Cayden, who died of the flu successful December 2014.

Cayden had been the aforesaid property arsenic Layla.

“It was precise akin symptoms to Cayden. So, of course, I jumped into precocious gear,” Richman said.

When Layla’s symptoms began connected Halloween, Richman took her to an urgent attraction session successful their hometown of Newport News, Virginia.

“Her bosom complaint was elevated. Her fever was precise high. They kept her determination for astir of the day to observe her,” Richman said. “I explained to the doc that was determination that I person mislaid a 3-year-old girl to the flu, truthful this was precise scary for me. He truly took that to heart.”

Layla’s aesculapian squad diagnosed her with influenza and gave her Motrin for her fever and the antiviral Tamiflu to dainty the infection.

“She felt amended reasonably quickly, wrong 24 hours,” Richman said.

Richman’s acquisition during this flu play was dramatically antithetic than successful 2014, erstwhile she mislaid her beloved Cayden.

One cardinal difference: Cayden was unvaccinated successful 2014. Layla got her vaccine successful September.

“I truly deliberation that the vaccine played a large role,” said Richman, who serves arsenic caput for the nonprofit Families Fighting Flu.

Even though Layla became sick erstwhile she encountered the flu microorganism weeks aft vaccination, “she recovered quickly,” Richman said, adding that nary 1 other successful their household – which besides includes her husband, Matt, and their 6-year-old son, Parker – caught the flu from Layla.

All of them had been vaccinated earlier Layla’s illness.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that astatine slightest 16,000 radical person died of flu this season, and astatine slightest 79 deaths person been successful children.

Seasonal flu enactment continues to beryllium precise prevalent crossed the United States but has been declining successful astir areas successful caller weeks. Still, nationalist wellness officials promote radical to get their yearly flu vaccine arsenic the champion mode to support against that virus.

Many radical who don’t get their seasonal flu changeable are not needfully anti-vaccination. They simply mightiness not person had the time. That was the lawsuit for Cayden successful 2014.

That year, Richman and Cayden’s begetter got their flu shots, but Cayden’s vaccination had to beryllium rescheduled due to the fact that she had a acold astatine the time.

“Because I besides astatine the clip was ill-informed astir the flu, I didn’t consciousness that it was ace urgent to spell and instantly get her flu changeable arsenic soon arsenic she was well,” Richman said. “I benignant of enactment it off.”

One Thursday immoderate weeks later, Cayden wasn’t her accustomed talkative and bubbly self. The 3-year-old, affectionately known arsenic CadyBug, was fatigued and developed a cough. She stayed location from daycare with her father, and helium took her to the pediatrician’s office.

The doc thought Cayden’s symptoms were astir apt from a acold microorganism and sent her location without investigating for the flu, Richman said.

The adjacent morning, Cayden inactive had a fever. She was coughing and kept asking for water. Her begetter took her backmost to the pediatrician’s bureau but was sent location again.

“No 1 tested her for the flu. No 1 seemed to deliberation that this was flu,” Richman said. “She was sent location that Friday afternoon.”

When they got home, Cayden’s symptoms worsened.

“She deteriorated very, precise fast. It was successful a substance of hours,” Richman said. “It was precise deep, shallow breaths. She was not breathing correctly.”

Richman said that she was driving location from enactment erstwhile she got a chilling telephone telephone from Cayden’s father: Cayden had stopped breathing during her nap. He had called 911. Richman arrived location to find exigency vehicles successful beforehand of her location and paramedics moving connected Cayden.

“She could not beryllium resuscitated astatine the house,” Richman said. “In the ambulance ride, they had not told maine astatine the clip that she could not beryllium resuscitated, but I could archer due to the fact that I was riding successful an ambulance and determination was nary noise. So I knew that it was over.”

When Cayden died, her parents inactive had nary thought that it was due to the fact that of the flu.

“It wasn’t until we received an autopsy that I intelligibly understood that it was the flu that caused her lungs to capable with mucus until she could nary longer breathe,” Richman said. “I had nary thought what happened until we got the autopsy back.”

Before Cayden’s tragic death, her parent was unaware that the flu could crook fatal.

“I was wholly taken aback,” she said. “I had nary thought that that could ever happen.”

Nearly a decennary later, Richman and her household get their flu shots unneurotic each twelvemonth successful remembrance of Cayden. They deterioration pinkish and stock societal media posts astir it, utilizing the hashtag #pinkforcadybug, since pinkish was Cayden’s favourite color.

The most communal symptoms of flu are fever, assemblage ache and shaking chills. In immoderate cases, it tin origin little respiratory tract infections known arsenic pneumonia oregon straight infect bosom cells and encephalon cells, causing inflammation of those organs, Dr. Tara Vijayan, an infectious illness doc astatine the David Geffen School of Medicine astatine the University of California, Los Angeles, said successful an email.

She added that inflammation tin effect successful the body’s ain cells dying.

“More commonly, however, if the flu is going to origin terrible illness it is due to the fact that it disrupts the lining of the respiratory tract specified that the lungs go much susceptible to different bacterial pneumonias,” Vijayan said. “Generally, those who are unvaccinated and person aggregate aesculapian problems oregon person lowered immune systems are astatine highest risk, but we person seen decease successful younger different steadfast people.”

She added that radical older successful property oregon who are large are besides astatine precocious hazard of complications.

Treating patients with terrible flu is simply a predominant but hard acquisition for Dr. Ali Khan, who specializes successful interior medicine astatine 1 of the superior attraction web Oak Street Health’s Chicago locations.

“It is an incredibly hard corruption to ticker arsenic a clinician,” Khan said, adding that flu infections tin crook deadly erstwhile idiosyncratic gets a superimposed bacterial corruption similar pneumonia oregon develops terrible sepsis.

“We get folks who are coming successful to hospitals with seizures oregon with encephalitis caused by the flu. Folks who are coming successful with important musculus wounded and breakdown, similar the benignant that you get erstwhile you’re rather dehydrated and overly fatigued,” helium said. “Suffice to say, I’ve seen this acold excessively galore times than I’d ever similar to spot arsenic a clinician.”

It’s not excessively precocious to get this season’s flu changeable if you haven’t done so, Khan said.

“We’re not retired of the woods yet,” helium said. “Absolutely, you tin inactive get vaccinated.”

Vijayan had akin sentiments.

“Our flu rates were unexpectedly precocious successful the precocious autumn and it does look to beryllium leveling off, but I would perfectly beryllium acrophobic astir different emergence successful cases this winter,” she said. “It is perfectly not excessively precocious to get the flu shot.”