H1N1 Pediatric Survivors - About this "normal" H1N1 virus

[indigo girl]

WARNING: I strive to keep this site informative and supportive and provide information about the H1N1 virus to people in all walks of life, with all types of beliefs. This post however is going to be VERY opinionated, even tinged with some anger, ok a bunch of anger. I'm not angry at any of you, I'm angry at my daughters situation, I am angry at H1N1 and yes, even angry at myself that I cant do anything to fix her, I am just forced to watch and help the best I can. I apologize in advance, but I need to get this out. "Regular progamming" after this will once again commence.

As anybody that has read Haleighs story knows she fought a mighty battle with the H1N1 virus. She almost died, she probably by medical standards, should have died. But she did not. She survived and I was (and still am) so eternally thankful to be able to bring my beautiful girl home. An alarming number of kids (many of them PERFECTLY HEALTHY prior to this) have fought this battle valaintly but sadly lost to the virus and its complications. Yet I still hear from the media, and from people everywhere, that this is "just" the flu. Yes it is the flu, and thousands of people die a year from the "average" seasonal flu, but this one is different. It is attacking younger people, healthy kids, and killing a startling number of them. How many people do you know that are HEALTHY, athletic and have no problems that get the flu and are left with a hypoxic brain injury? Not.too.many. I am angry today, because parents are continuing to lose their children, or left with no other choice than to stand helplessly by their childs bedside praying for them to live, and not being able to do anything to make them better. Yet another young child lost their life to H1N1 here in New Mexico this week. Nationally, the US has lost as many kids to this virus as it normally does in the ENTIRE flu season, and this season has barely begun. Canada is following very closely with those numbers. Sound like "just the normal" flu to you? I found a woman here on facebook who had posted on another H1N1 site who has a very young daughter that is fighting this horrible virus and who is still critically ill. Looking at her posts, and pictures makes me relive the nightmare that we went through in the PICU. Why? Because even though she is in a different country, her daughter is going through almost EXACTLY the same thing that Haleigh went through. This flu is not just causing the "normal" signs and symptoms, it is causing pneumonia, and respiratory failure and sepsis, where these kids bodies cant even sustain its own blood pressure. Sound normal to you?

More at: http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=167220357583

http://www.facebook.com/pages/H1N1-Pediatric-Survivors/159536069810