A Severe Complication From the Flu Highlights Importance of Vaccination

Like many dad and mom, Angela has a full schedule between work, maintaining with each her youngsters’s schoolwork, and different household tasks. However she all the time tried to ensure her 12-year-old son and 6-year-old daughter obtained all their childhood and seasonal vaccines. This all occurred in line with schedule, apart from one yr when she was late in getting the flu vaccine. This was the yr when her daughter had a extreme complication from the flu.

“When you have a look at our daughter’s information, you’ll see that she bought her flu vaccine all of the prior years,” she says. “That’s why sharing her story with others is so essential to us.”

Her daughter bought the flu in January 2024. What began out as a fever ended up touchdown her at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford preventing for her life as a consequence of a uncommon neurological complication. That flu season snuck up on Angela and her household—she was late to take her daughter to get the vaccine.

“It’s one thing I’ll all the time carry with me,” Angela says.

Angela’s daughter had no preexisting circumstances. She was wholesome. With most instances of the flu, youngsters get a fever. However the 6-year-old’s fever continued for a number of days till she had a seizure.

“She wasn’t popping out of the seizure. We known as 911, went to the emergency room, and she or he nonetheless had not regained consciousness. That’s after they transferred her to Packard Youngsters’s,” Angela remembers.

At that time, docs famous her mind had began to swell. She was recognized with acute necrotizing encephalopathy (ANE), a uncommon extreme neurological mind situation that may happen after a viral an infection just like the flu. ANE carries a excessive threat of mortality, with some sufferers experiencing lasting results like developmental delays, seizure problems, and cognitive challenges.

“She wasn’t speaking and barely transferring,” Angela says. “Throughout these early days of hospitalization, we have been having discussions about what survival would appear like, as we weren’t certain of the extent of the mind harm.”

Her care group began her on a routine of various therapies. Fortunately, she responded. After three weeks within the hospital, her daughter spoke. Her first phrases have been “I like you.”

Angela’s daughter was later transferred from the hospital to inpatient rehabilitation, the place she stayed for one more three weeks. With further in-home therapies, Angela’s daughter was in a position to return to high school part-time in Might after which full-time the final two weeks of the kindergarten faculty yr.

Now over a yr after Angela’s daughter was hospitalized, she says, “My daughter is doing OK now. She is in first grade and has catching as much as do in studying and writing, however she has progressed so much. She continues to point out bravery and willpower.”

Youngsters who’ve extreme problems from the flu don’t all the time get better like Angela’s daughter. This previous flu season, the Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention recorded the highest number of pediatric deaths in 12 years—90% of those occurred in youngsters who weren’t vaccinated.

These numbers are why Angela is urging dad and mom not solely to vaccinate their youngsters. “These are lifesaving,” she says. “And each fall, we’re getting my daughter vaccinated as quickly because the flu shot is offered.”

Learn more about flu shots available at Stanford Medicine Children’s Health >