Without getting into the conversation about vaccines, I just wanted to share a brief story of gratitude, thankfulness and caution about this year’s flu. 10 days ago, my 2 year old son, woke up from his nap with a 102.2 fever and a red face. He definitely was quiet, not feeling great, not eating much. We have a 5 week old as well and my wife was feeding her on the couch, while our 2 year old was on the opposite end of the couch watching Mickey Mouse on Disney. He was leaning over and we thought he was going to nap, but thankfully my wife, the surgical nurse noticed something was off and called his name twice. He didn’t respond so she yelled at me to come over quickly from the cooking in the kitchen. I lifted his head up, he was completely limp and his eyes rolled to the back of his head. He started acting like he was choking so we called 911 immediately got a dechoker, but his jaw was locked tight. After about 30 seconds, we got his mouth open for the dechoker.. Nothing was blocking his airway. He turned completely blue/purple so my wife had to put him on the ground and start CPR because he wasn’t breathing and we didn’t feel a pulse. Three rounds of CPR and during the second one, I had to run to the closet to get the AED we keep in the house. After the third round, he started breathing very slightly and fighting it a little as the EMS rushed in the house. They jumped in, AED, epi followed by versed. Got him stable enough to transport. During transport had to intubate, start two IVs, but they got him to the hospital. Once there, they were able to do ct scan and didn’t see any brain damage nor serious heart damage, but believed he needed to be life flighted down to Rainbow babies.. which they did. Rainbow babies did their thing, got him stable and improving and did lots of tests, but kept him with us when we thought we were losing him.
They don’t know for sure what caused such a serious event, but the combination of Flu A, Flu Myositis and a febrile seizure and the commentary from all the doctors including neurologists was that this year’s flu is wreaking havoc to all ages, especially children. I think part of this is just helping to say what happened to deal with the shock, but part of it is just sharing how bad the flu is and everyone taking extra precautions could possibly help just one person avoid an event like this is worth it. So especially if you have kids, be smart with food, sleep and washing hands this year. If there’s a fever, please keep a close eye on them this year.
