6-Year-Old With Flu Told She'd Be OK; She Died That Day

CARY, NC — A 6-year-old girl in North Carolina has died from the flu just days after showing symptoms and the family is now raising money to help remember her. Emily Grace Muth started showing symptoms Jan. 16, according to a GoFundMe post created to raise money for her funeral costs.

The family took her to urgent care Thursday and called an ambulance a day later when the girl was having trouble breathing. An emergency medical technician on Friday morning said Emily had the flu and that she would "get even worse," the post said. The family was told to keep her hydrated and that she'd be OK in a week or so.

"He asked us, 'We can take her,' she told WTVD-TV. "And they're the medical personnel. I trust what they know. And they said she was fine."

Hours later, Emily's breathing difficulties worsened. At one point, she got up and sunk back down.

"I went, 'Emily, Emily.' And I noticed she wasn't breathing," her mother told the station.

The girl was rushed to a WakeMed hospital in Raleigh. By then it was too late. She died that day, the crowdfunding post said.

"Our hearts are aching and feels like we lost a part of us," the post said. "There is nothing worse then (sic) losing a child. She was our everything..she will be in our hearts forever."

Now the family is warning other parents to get flu shots for their kids.

“Please all of you who have children please hold them tight and first sign of flu get them to the er," the post said. (For more North Carolina news, find your local Patch here. If you have an iPhone, click here to get the free Patch iPhone app; download the free Patch Android app here.)

Rhonda Muth said she, her husband and Emily's two brothers, ages 8 and 10, are "devastated."

"How could that even happen? I mean, one day she's fine...she had the fever and she was a little achy," she told WTVD-TV. "Other than that, she had had the runny nose and cough like typical, and then she's gone. It's horrible. I don't wish this on anybody."

A service for Emily is planned for Thursday at 4 p.m. Cary Church of Christ at 6640 Tryon Rd.

This flu season has been one of the worst in recent history. A particularly aggressive flu strain remains widespread in every state except Hawaii, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said last week. With this year's higher-than-average mortality rate, the CDC says the disease has crossed into epidemic levels.

At least 30 children have died, a third of them during the week ending Jan. 13, the last date covered in the CDC's latest surveillance report.

There were more than 14,000 new laboratory-confirmed cases of the flu during the week that ended Jan. 13, bringing the season total to 74,562.

Emily's father, Nathan Muth, called the aggressive flu strain a "plague."

"The flu is no joke right now," he told the station.

Click here to read the entire WTVD-TV article.

Patch has reached out to the family and will update when we hear back.

Photo credit: GoFundMe