Madison Allen

This post is shared with permission from Families Fighting Flu and can be found on their “Family Stories” webpage.

Our family stories put a face on the flu and illustrate why we’re so driven in our mission. Flu is a serious disease and we are all at risk, regardless of age, gender, health status, ethnicity, or lifestyle. We share these emotional family stories to educate others about the importance of flu prevention and annual flu vaccination for everyone six months and older. 

Madi was a healthy 12-year old athlete who spent 93 days in the hospital with a 1% chance of survival.

Madi’s Flu Illness

Madison (“Madi”) was a bright, healthy, vibrant, active 12-year-old. She was enjoying 7th grade and had just finished playing basketball for her school and soccer for her traveling team. It was supposed to be her downtime before spring sports started. However, on Monday, February 21, 2011, Madi and her family’s lives changed drastically.

On the Friday before, Madi was not feeling well, but she didn’t want to miss her friend’s birthday party. So she found enough strength to go and celebrate and hang out with her friends. She had plans to spend the night with her best friend after the birthday party, but shortly after she got to the party, she texted her mother and said she thought she better come home. That night Madi was coughing and had a temperature so her mother gave her some over-the-counter medicine. Madi asked her mother to sleep in her bedroom. Her mother remembers waking up that night and could feel the heat from Madi’s body.

The next morning Madi felt somewhat better, but that night she started to feel bad again. By Sunday she was so exhausted from not sleeping much the last two nights that she rested the whole day. Her mother kept giving her medicine to break the temperature and help her with a cough. By Sunday night Madi was very restless and could not find a comfortable position. By early Monday morning, she was having difficulty breathing. Her parents were trying to wait until the doctor’s office opened to get her in first thing that morning. Her mother put her in the shower as they were waiting for her father to get home from running errands. Her mother closed the shower curtain to get her a towel and when she opened the curtain, Madi’s face was sunken in and her lips were blue. Her mother walked Madi to her bedroom and called her husband and said he needed to get home fast because they needed to get Madi to the emergency room.

Please read the rest of this story on the Family Stories Blog.