A Texas woman who came down with the flu twice in a two-month span has died.
Writers for the New York Post note that 58-year-old Angie Barwise first tested positive for influenza around Christmas time, but was able to combat it with Tamiflu, an antiviral medication.
About a month later, Barwise fell ill with a fever and went to the doctor, where it was discovered she contracted a different strain of the virus.
“Doctors determined that Barwise was infected with Type B influenza,” the New York Post writes.
She was once again sent home with medication, but according to the Post , her health “did not improve.”
On January 31, Barwise returned to the hospital, where doctors ran a series of tests before sending her home. The next day, however, she was told to return to the hospital again after complications came up in her blood work , according to the Washington Post .
There, it was discovered that Barwise was also battling pneumonia and was in septic shock. On February 3, just a week after coming down with the flu for the second time, Angie Barwise was dead.
In addition to the flu, she reportedly had pneumonia and was in septic shock, causing her health to take dramatically deteriorate https://t.co/gudCOCJJx1
— New York Post (@nypost) February 9, 2018
“I left for just a few minutes — I thought everything was going to be okay,” Greg Barwise told CBS DFW. “I got a phone call that she had just passed.”
Barwise’s passing comes as the worst flu season in years is sweeping across the U.S.
According to the CDC, more than 17,000 people have been hospitalized with flu symptoms since October, and 63 children have died. While the numbers may be staggering, The Sun explains that this is not a pandemic like the swine flu from 2009.
“Pandemics occur when there is a new strain of virus for which people have no previous exposure. That’s not the case here, because the seasonal strains that are circulating this year are not new. But the predominant one, H3N2, is a particularly nasty strain that is associated with more complications, hospitalizations and deaths, especially among children, those older than 65 and people with certain chronic conditions.”
The CDC urges people who haven’t received the flu vaccine to do so as soon as possible. A GoFundMe page has been set up by Barwise’s family to help with funeral expenses .
