A mother and son duo from Michigan are speaking out about the dangers linked to the flu after he lost both of his legs from serious complications arising from the virus.
Kaden Stevenson was only 7 years old and preparing to celebrate Christmas when his mother saw that he was not feeling well. The young child who did not get his flu vaccine this year vomited on Friday and felt under the weather the entire weekend. He also slept for long hours of the day, which was strange and very unlike him.
Four days later, his condition started to go from bad to worse, and he started to speak about pain in his right leg. His grandmother rolled out an alert to his mother that he needed medical intervention, as this was not normal.
This is when his mother noticed that his leg was all swollen and he had a serious rash across his entire body. This is the point where he was rushed to the ER and given intubation on an urgent basis. Kaden was given an immediate diagnosis of influenza A and strep. He quickly went into a moment of toxic shock due to the complication of the flu that caused bacteria to enter the bloodstream.
All of a sudden, his heart, liver, and kidneys started to malfunction. Doctors first got rid of dead tissue from his right leg, which included his entire calf muscle. Two weeks after that, he was told that both of his legs needed amputation as the infection spread into the blood.