My Aunt died of the flu.

[Cainkane1]

My Aunt died in a hospital of complications of a seasonal flu. During her life she had been very health consciounce and didn't do anything to comprimise her health. She was 75 years old.

My problem is this. Why weren't the doctors able to save her? She was given fever reducing medication and anti viral drugs. She was in bed and drinking plenty of fluids. She seemed to be getting better when she suddenly died of a pneumonia. I've had the fu and I didn't die so why did she?

 

[firecoins]

how old are you?

Your probably too young to die of the flu. Your body has an immune system that can hadle it and lungs that can get rid of excess fluid. Its a little difficult to do that when your body is too old.

 

[Dymanic]

My Aunt died in a hospital of complications of a seasonal flu. During her life she had been very health consciounce and didn't do anything to comprimise her health. She was 75 years old.

My problem is this. Why weren't the doctors able to save her? She was given fever reducing medication and anti viral drugs. She was in bed and drinking plenty of fluids. She seemed to be getting better when she suddenly died of a pneumonia. I've had the fu and I didn't die so why did she?

I'm sorry to hear about your aunt. Primary viral pneumonia can progress rapidly, and it's tough to fix. Maybe if they had gotten the antivirals on board sooner. Did she seek care within the first couple of days?

 

[MacM]

My Aunt died in a hospital of complications of a seasonal flu. During her life she had been very health consciounce and didn't do anything to comprimise her health. She was 75 years old.

My problem is this. Why weren't the doctors able to save her? She was given fever reducing medication and anti viral drugs. She was in bed and drinking plenty of fluids. She seemed to be getting better when she suddenly died of a pneumonia. I've had the fu and I didn't die so why did she?

First my condolences. I think it has more to do with hospital care today than the flu.

My wife and I manage a retirement community and have seen several people enter the hospital with a variety of aliments but ended up dying there due to complications of having developed pneumonia.

Our neighbors both discovered they had cancer just weeks apart. She ended up in the hospital first but died of pneumonia. Just two months later he also went to the hospital but died of pneumonia.

If you are left to lay without being moved seems to invite pneumonia.

 

[Cainkane1]

I'm sorry to hear about your aunt. Primary viral pneumonia can progress rapidly, and it's tough to fix. Maybe if they had gotten the antivirals on board sooner. Did she seek care within the first couple of days?

She probably waited too late to go to the hospital. She was drinking lots of water and taking asperin probably believing she could beat it alone. Her daughter was taking care of her and no one thought it was a big deal. When the fever got worse she called for an ambulance and we all thought she would recover. She did seem to respond to the medication and her fever went down. However she died despite this.

 

[Cainkane1]

how old are you?

Your probably too young to die of the flu. Your body has an immune system that can hadle it and lungs that can get rid of excess fluid. Its a little difficult to do that when your body is too old.

I'm 62. I did the same thing my Aunt did when she caught the flu. Plenty of bed rest and water and asperin. My fever broke and I went to work shaky but well.

 

[sol invictus]

My Aunt died in a hospital of complications of a seasonal flu. During her life she had been very health consciounce and didn't do anything to comprimise her health. She was 75 years old.

My problem is this. Why weren't the doctors able to save her? She was given fever reducing medication and anti viral drugs. She was in bed and drinking plenty of fluids. She seemed to be getting better when she suddenly died of a pneumonia. I've had the fu and I didn't die so why did she?

I'm very sorry to hear that.

There are around 35,000 deaths from flu every year in the USA. That makes it nearly as deadly as car accidents (~45,000 deaths per year), and probably much more so for those over 70. It's a serious illness.

 

[Eos of the Eons]

Sorry to hear about your aunt

Thousands of people die of the flu every year, but it is nothing new so the media doesn't report it the way they do the new "swine flu" H1N1 "epidemic" (even though less people are dying of the H1N1 strain so far).

Most of them do die of complications from secondary diseases, like the pneumonia rather than directly from the flu itself. The flu brings them down, and the other disease is able to take hold when normally it wouldn't be able to.

The people at the highest risk of dying are the very young and the elderly since their own immune systems are usually not as able to fight the secondary disease off as well as most of the other people in other age groups.

Getting the flu vaccine will lessen the symptoms or prevent a person from getting the flu so they have a higher chance of surviving the flu season.

However, influenza by itself is not as deadly. Here, the 2006 numbers show that pneumonia is the factor behind most of the deaths in the category Influenza and Pneumonia.
Number of deaths in 2006 from influenza: 846
Number of deaths in 2006 from pneumonia: 55,477

http://nchspressroom.wordpress.com/2009/04/29/data-on-deaths-due-to-influenza/
If you get the flu and pneumonia, then your chances of dying are increased dramatically.

The article states that getting pneumonia while having the flu is the 8th leading cause of death in the USA.

 

[Robster FCD]

My condolences as well.