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Doctor's daughter dies from the flu
Dr. Cesar Termulo is a pediatrician. He's warning parents to take the flu seriously. His 16-year-old daughter died from the flu six years ago.
DALLAS - A North Texas pediatrician is warning other parents to take the flu seriously after losing his own daughter to the virus.
The backstory:
Dr. Cesar Termulo’s 16-year-old daughter, Reese, was a very active and healthy child.
In 2020, the flu shot was only 60-70% effected. Reese had received the shot but ended up catching a different strain of the flu.
Reese Termulo
Dr. Termulo said Reese spiked a fever on Jan. 9, 2020. She was diagnosed at his clinic the next morning and given a prescription for Tamilfu. By the following morning, she had passed away.
"She was actually acting pretty normal. She was doing the same things that a normal teenager does, like she was texting her friends, she was checking her social media. She was doing her homework. And even that night that, you know, she was doing basically everything that teenagers do, but she was having a fever so she was in bed. The next morning, I checked her. I knew the complications that could occur from the flu, which is sudden pneumonia. And so, the next day I checked her, and she wasn't even having a fever. She just said that her chest hurt. So, I listened to her lungs, and I checked her and she was, she seemed fine. And you know, the last thing I ever said to her is, ‘Reese, I think you're gonna be fine.’ And that was about 7 o'clock that morning. I had to go to work, and then she passed away at about 11 o'clock," he said.
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What they're saying:
Dr. Termulo works for Parkland Healthcare and said his office has treated a lot of flu cases so far this season.
Even though the flu shot doesn’t help his daughter, he still recommends the shot.
"Nothing is 100%. So, let’s say, you know, if you wear a seatbelt going down 75 and you get into an accident. That’s not 100% either. If you get hit by an 18-wheeler, you could die even if you are wearing a seatbelt," he said. "The flu vaccine that year was about 60 to 70% effective. That means that if you did get a flu shot, more than likely you’re not going to have the complications that happened to my daughter. So, I think it’s completely illogical for people to say that your child died and she got the flu shot, therefore the flu shot does not work."
He also urged parents to keep a close eye on their child’s symptoms and to watch for complications like pneumonia and difficulty breathing.
The Source: The information in this story comes from a Good Day interview with Dr. Cesar Termulo.