Just 4 years old, she had a mild fever for 4 days before it spiked.
Her sight might come back, no one yet knows if she’s lost it permanently. Give it about three to six months, and the doctors will have a better idea, they say. But for the moment, Jade DeLucia, a 4 year-old from Iowa, she can’t see her sister, her favorite toys, her parents, the home she loves and came back to, or anything really for that matter.
Jade fell sick with the flu this past December. She hadn’t had her flu shot. Doctors say she is lucky to be alive. Like many children, her illness started out with a low-grade fever that went away easily with medication. She had no warning signs other than the fact that she had a fever for 4 days, that her flu would turn disastrous.
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Once her fever spiked on the morning of December 24th, her parents took her to the hospital. And from then on, it got worse. Jade experienced a seizure as the flu had affected her brain and caused her to develop encephalopathy. Suffering from brain damage, her vision has now been damaged and doctors are waiting to see if it will come back.
Her parents have this message for others:
“We want parents to know they should get a flu shot (for their children) every season,” said Amanda Phillips, Jade’s mother.
To learn more about Jade’s story and the GoFundMe page that has been set up to help her family, click here.
