We’ve all been feeling the effects of the winter cold and flu season.
The flu itself can be a pain but parents are being warned to be wary of possible complications after the tragic death of a young boy.
Seven-year-old Cisco Galvez from San Bernardino in California began to feel ill on New Year’s Eve, according to his mother, Juanita Vidana.
He was having breathing problems, so she brought him to their local A and E.
“It was full of people coughing and sneezing – everybody was there for the flu basically,” Vidana told ABC.
The doctors believed Cisco trouble breathing was related to his asthma. He was treated for this and then sent home.
Two days later, he began to show typical flu symptoms including fatigue, fever and a stomach ache and his mother brought him back to the hospital.
Image via Melissa Kakuk/ GoFundMe
“It happened so fast, in days, in a matter of days. I never expected it. He was very healthy.
“They were going to send him to the ICU in Loma Linda and he didn’t make it.”
Cisco passed away before he could be transferred.
He died of myocarditis, a heart condition that’s often linked to the flu.
“It’s a very well-known complication of influenza,” said Dr Adrian Cotton at Loma Linda University Health
“It doesn’t happen very often, but when it happens it’s very bad.”
In Ireland, the HSE is warning parents to be extra vigilant about flu symptoms with their children.
It warned last week that up to 10 people in the country had died of the Aussie flu, a strain of the illness that has killed over 300 people in Australia.
