Over the holidays, one Iowa family was left shocked and distraught after their newly turned 3-year-old daughter, Ayzlee McCarthy, died from the flu within three days after she began to exhibit symptoms.
Ayzlee's distraught mother, Amber McCarthy, is struggling to understand. "She was healthy, she had a flu shot–the whole thing is so unreal," Amber McCarthy told the Des Moines Register.
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The little girls spent spent the day after Christmas running around the house, like most children, playing with her siblings and her Christmas gifts.
One day later, her legs hurt so badly that she could not walk. By the 28th, her parents rushed her to the hospital in Des Moines. The next day she died of influenza A and B with sepsis. She was a healthy 3-year-old one day and then three days later, she was dead and none of it makes sense.
As parents, we get used to cold and flu season. It happens every year and we know it is coming. We do all the right things: We teach our kids to sneeze into their elbow, wash their hands the appropriate amount of time and cover their mouths when they cough.
Most of us even vaccinate our children against the flu virus, but the flu evolves. We try, but sometimes things happen to remind us and make us aware that we are still vulnerable and worse, so are our children.
These parents did everything right. They took her to the hospital. They didn't ignore anything. She was treated appropriately. It just wasn't enough. You've heard the old adage that a pinch of prevention is worth a pound of cure? Well, it is.
We can't protect our children from everything in the world but we sure can try to keep them safe and healthy. Aside from taking care of our children immediately when they present with symptoms, we always have to follow our guts and most importantly, talk to our children about the importance of staying well and teach them how to take steps to do so.
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