Girl, 5, Dies Of Flu Despite Getting Vaccinated

A five-year-old girl from Las Vegas recently died days after coming down with the flu even though she had been vaccinated, ABC News reported recently.

Kiera Driscoll, a kindergartner, was well enough to play outside her home 24 hours after she collapsed, her father, Patrick Driscoll, said.

"In fact, she was playing outside that afternoon with my wife and even made a comment that it was 'the most fun time ever,'" Driscoll said.

Even though she had taken a flu shot, Kiera had a slight fever on Sunday morning but she seemed to feel better after taking ibuprofen for children.

Her slight fever, however, returned. Her cough became worse and included phlegm, recalled Driscoll. At about 4 a.m. they made her use an albuterol nebulizer to clear her airways. Keira did not have asthma but occasionally had a barking cough as a baby. Her father stayed up with her watching cartoons until she fell asleep at 8 a.m.

Kiera was brought to an urgent care center that morning, where she received another albuterol treatment and a steroid to help her breathe. Her mother stayed home to take care of her.

As she was tucked into her bed a few hours later for a nap, and her mother turned away to turn on a vaporizer, Kiera said, "I can't breathe. It's hard to breathe," Driscoll said. Then, Kiera collapsed and passed out.

Kiera's mother, who is trained in CPR, cleared her airways and performed rescue breathing. She also called 911, Driscoll said.

The little girl's pulse went away but came back in the emergency room. Her brain wave activity, however, diminished and she developed an irregular heart beat and went into cardiac arrest. She died the following day, on Tuesday, Jan. 20.

"Their working diagnosis was that a mucus plug of thick mucus got coughed up and clogged, lodged in her trachea, preventing her from being able to breathe," said Driscoll.

Kiera's official cause of death was that she went into cardiac arrest after having influenza A and pneumonia, according to the Clark County coroner's office in Nevada, which did not examine her body after her death.

Driscoll said Kiera got a flu shot, and they still want other parents to vaccinate their children.

"Vaccines help save lives, and they help keep other people from getting infected as well," he said. "We always want people to be vaccinated."

According to weekly statistics from Jan. 11 to 17 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there have been 11 influenza-associated pediatric deaths reported. In total, there have been 56 influenza-associated pediatric deaths reported for the 2014-2015 season.

On pneumonia and influenza mortality, the C.D.C. said: "The proportion of deaths attributed to pneumonia and influenza was above the epidemic threshold."

Influenza was reported as "widespread" in 44 states.

According to The Johns Hopkins News-Letter, the vaccine this year only had a 23-percent effectiveness rate. Those vaccinated may still get sick as two-thirds of the H3N2 strain of the flu mutated, which is the cause for the majority of flu illnesses this year.

"The strain is considered a more severe variety of the flu since it tends to hospitalize more people," the newsletter read.