I almost died from flu. My life didn't go back to normal after.
In February 2011, Madi Allen, a healthy 12-year-old in Central Illinois, who loved playing sports, almost died from the flu.
Key points
- She stepped away for a second just to grab a towel and said that when she came back, my lips were turning gray and my eyes were starting to look sunken in.
- The flight team came to evaluate me and they later told me they didn't think they were ever going to get me to Saint Louis.
- The influenza B virus resulted in her developing necrotizing pneumonia, where the infection triggers inflammation that destroys the tissue of the lungs, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), and her kidneys shut down.
Allen was put on life support and had to be intubated for five weeks after getting sick with flu.
They wanted to intubate me straight away but were waiting until my mom got there so she could talk to me — my dad did the best he could, but my dad didn't know how to calm me down.
Additional details
- We were waiting for my pediatrician to open up and my mom suggested taking a shower, saying, "Maybe that will help you feel a bit better before we go to the doctor." She had to help me take a shower because I was so weak, I couldn't stand by myself.
- It didn't feel like it was helping at all, which, I guess, at that point, it wasn't.
- I had to be put on life support so needed to be moved to a bigger hospital in St.
- I didn't really have any health issues beforehand — just sports-induced asthma.
- I was just a normal seventh grader, I played soccer and basketball.
How this summary was made: extractive summary — built from the sources' own reporting. It is drawn only from the reporting of the sources listed below — read the originals for full detail. How we summarize →
Advertisement
Every article behind this summary — 1 article from 1 outlet
Get stories like this in your inbox.
Subscribe — it's freeOne free email at 6am — your topics, deduplicated, five minutes. No account, no paywall.