Oliver
A Flu Story

How would you describe Oliver? What are some of your fondest memories with him? 

Oliver was a sweet, gentle boy who loved all things cars and superheroes. He was silly and loved telling jokes. Overall, he was a pretty active child—he always wanted to go bowling or to the park to play. He had just started his first season of soccer the year he caught the flu. 

One of our favorite things to do together was sing in the car. Oliver’s favorite song was, “Jesus Loves Me,” and he had also just started loving Morgan Wallen like me. 

When did Oliver get sick with the flu? How did you know he wasn’t feeling well? 

Oliver had never been sick before. He was a perfectly healthy child, and he didn’t even know what nausea felt like. But one day after his nap at school, Oliver started feeling unwell. I remember getting a call from the school nurse when he started running a fever.  

The next morning, I took him to the doctor because his fever wouldn’t go down. That’s when he tested positive for the flu. The whole morning, he kept telling me that his tummy hurt. I thought it was because he hadn’t eaten or he had some trapped gas. 

On the way home from the doctor, I stopped to get Oliver some medicine for his stomach. When he kept complaining about his stomach after the medicine, I realized his illness might be serious and took him to the emergency room.

How did his illness progress? 

As soon as we got to the emergency room, Oliver started throwing up green fluid. Within five minutes of the nurse checking us in, she took us back to take his vitals then immediately carried him into a trauma room. We were suddenly surrounded by doctors and medical staff.  

Eventually, one of the staff members escorted me out of the trauma room. They explained that the doctors had to put Oliver to sleep and were going to place a tube in his chest that would help him breathe. I was told that Oliver was going to be admitted into a room within 30 minutes and then I would be able to see him. 

I sat in the waiting room for hours, until two doctors finally came out to speak with me. They said they couldn’t get enough oxygen through Oliver’s body, and the last life-saving measure was extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO). They asked me if I agreed to the procedure, and I did. Anything to save my son. 

After seven hours of waiting to see Oliver, the doctors took me back to his room to tell me that he didn’t make it. They explained to me that he had developed pneumothorax, a collapsed lung, from the flu. My only child, my boy, was pronounced dead. 

Was Oliver vaccinated? 

Oliver hadn’t been vaccinated for the flu since he was a baby. There was no real reason behind it other than I just chose not to. The flu comes around every season. Millions of people get it every year. I didn’t take it seriously; I didn’t know how bad it actually was. I hate that my child had to give me that lesson. 

What do you want others to know about the flu that you didn’t realize until after Oliver’s illness? What advice would you give them? 

Learn more about a disease before you choose whether or not you want to vaccinate against it. Learn about the complications it could lead to, even if it’s a common disease that comes around every year.  

Make your decision with as much information as possible. Are the risks of the disease greater than the risks of the vaccine? Is watching your child suffer or even dying from the disease worth not trying to protect them from it? 

Knowing what I know now, I make it more of a point to talk about vaccinations with friends and family.