14 DAY TRIAL // In the United States, 43 per cent of children that have died from the flu were not considered high-risk patients, they were healthy and didn't seek help from professionals until it was too late.
The flu killed 115 children and teenagers last cold season, and Austin's case serves as a warning to take every precaution against catching it, including getting the flu vaccine.
As a reminder of taking proper measures against the flu, the Daily Mail brings us the story of 17-year-old Austin Booth, an otherwise healthy boy that died six days after catching the flu.
He was a happy and active teenager, that played football, baseball and basketball at his local high-school in Colorado. In January 2011, he got a cold and didn't think much of it.
“It was very, very rare that he would be sick or stay home for anything,” his mom, 42, said.
Even as he started feeling week, the teenager from Rifle, Colorado, kept attending high school varsity basketball practice.
“When he got sick the first day, he didn’t feel good. We knew it was flu season. A couple of other kids on the basketball team had come down with flu so we knew that was going on,” Mrs. Booth explained.
One day after, he started to feel the flu was acting up, and, as he began coughing up blood, his parents called an ambulance. The boy's state aggravated in a matter of hours. He had to be airlifted to a hospital that was equipped for handling the situation, and ended up in Grand Junction, Colorado.
Doctors diagnosed him with influenza B and an unusual staph infection with methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA).
He was treated intensively with antibiotics, but, eventually, doctors had to induce a coma because his condition had become too unstable.
Not even the massive dosage of medication could help, and the boy passed away, just one week after he caught the flu.
“[The infection] was more than he could do. His organs started to shut down,” Austin's parents explained.