A nine-year-old girl will be laid to rest today after she tragically died from flu complications last month.
Madeline ‘Maddie’ Vernon died on January 29, just four days after she had been diagnosed with influenza at an urgent care center in North Carolina.
Her symptoms quickly worsened with the youngster developing a 104.9F on the morning of January 28, her loved ones revealed in a crowdfunding page.
Maddie was rushed back to urgent care, placed on a ventilator to help her breathe and transported to Brenner’s Children’s Hospital in Winston-Salem. She passed away the next day around 4am.
Her parents, who say that Maddie ‘could brighten any room with just a smile’, are now urging other families to vaccinate their children as America battles its most intense flu season in more than a decade.
Just six weeks into flu season, the US has already recorded 16,000 deaths from the virus, including 68 pediatric deaths, according to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The CDC also estimates there have been at least 29 million illnesses of the flu and 370,000 hospitalizations so far this season.
Madeline ‘Maddie’ Vernon (pictured) died on January 29, just four days after she had been diagnosed with influenza at an urgent care center in North Carolina
Her symptoms quickly worsened with the youngster developing a 104.9F on the morning of January 28. Maddie was rushed back to urgent care, placed on a ventilator to help her breathe and transported to Brenner’s Children’s Hospital in Winston-Salem. She passed away the next day around 4am
Just six weeks into flu season, the US has already recorded 16,000 deaths from the virus, including 68 pediatric deaths, according to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC also estimates there have been at least 29 million illnesses of the flu and 370,000 hospitalizations so far this season
Maddie, who is being honored at a memorial service today, is remembered for her ‘fun-loving’, ‘caring’ and ‘energetic’ personality.
She was a ‘very active and healthy child’ and loved to play sports, specifically soccer and volleyball, according to her obituary.
‘Maddie was loved by so many,’ her family wrote. ‘To know her was to truly love her and know the meaning of love. A Maddie hug felt like it could cure any problem in the world.’
Her mother Mary Edging told WRAL-TV that losing Maddie was felt ‘like my heart has been ripped in half’.
‘I lost, I literally lost a piece of me,’ she added.
Edging, who admitted her daughter did not receive a flu vaccine this year, is encouraging other families to vaccinate their children.
This year’s flu vaccine is meant to protect recipients from two strains of influenza A, as well as influenza B.
The CDC recommends that everyone over the age of 6 months receive an annual influenza.
Studies have shown that getting vaccinated for the flu decreases one’s chances of contracting the virus by 50 per cent.
Maddie, who is being honored at a memorial service today, is remembered for her ‘fun-loving’, ‘caring’ and ‘energetic’ personality. She was a ‘very active and healthy child’ and loved to play sports, specifically soccer and volleyball, according to her obituary
Based on the latest CDC data, the US is experiencing a ‘high severity’ flu season for all age groups, including children, adults and the elderly.
Public health laboratories across the nation reported 4,079 cases of influenza A and 135 of influenza B during the week ending February 8.
Eleven pediatric flu deaths were reported that same week week, bringing the season total to 68 pediatric deaths.
Dr. Daniel Park, a medical director in the pediatric emergency department at UNC Medical Center, said Maddie’s tragic death is a stark reminder that preventive vaccines are important.
‘Prevention is huge,’ Park told WRAL, highlighting how vaccinations are even more important for patients who are ‘very young and very old, and those with chronic medical conditions, who are immunocompromised or who have a chronic medical condition and are technology dependent.’
‘Those patients are at a much higher risk of severe illness and that’s what we’re seeing in the emergency departments.’
He added: ‘It is not too late to get the flu vaccine, even in the middle of flu season. It’s never too late to get the flu vaccine.’
