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>> In 2012 my daughter Caroline was a healthy 5-year-old that had just begun kindergarten, and
my older daughter had just begun third grade. So, it was a new school year,
and we had it on our list to do of, on our list to do would be to get a flu vaccine. And we got busy
with the new school year, and before I knew it, it was December and I realized, oh my goodness,
we still need to get that flu vaccine. Unfortunately, we never had the opportunity.
In 2012 my healthy 5-year-old daughter became gravely ill with influenza and double pneumonia,
and she would have to be sent by ambulance to our closest hospital, and that's actually
where they diagnosed her shortly thereafter. They informed me that she would need to be
sent again via ambulance to another facility that would have a dedicated pediatric unit.
And once there, her health deteriorated rapidly. The doctors basically told us that there was
nothing more that they could do for her there and that she would need to be intubated and,
ultimately, she would need to be placed on a special oscillating ventilator, which was not
actually available at their location, that she would need to be airlifted.
And I just remember being completely alarmed because here this healthy,
vibrant 5-year-old within a matter of 24 hours was clinging to life and unable to breathe on her own,
all as a result of influenza. And I remember as we were trying to grapple with this, my husband
pulled the doctor aside and he said, could you please explain this, you know, I think there
might be some confusion. Our daughter is here because of influenza and pneumonia and now they're
talking about airlifting her and intubating her. And the doctor turned around and said,
“Sir, over 50,000 people die each year from this vaccine-preventable disease.”
And I just remember feeling as if the oxygen had been sucked out of the room because I had never
heard that statistic and I had no idea that young and healthy individuals, particularly
my young 5-year-old, could become that ill from something that I thought was insignificant.
Obviously, I couldn't be more wrong. We were incredibly lucky that Caroline
lived through this critical illness and that she ultimately made a full recovery. But,
you know, she made a full physical recovery. But, unfortunately, these illnesses are incredibly
traumatic, not only for the child that's ill, but also for each and every family member,
all of her classmates, you know, her kindergarten teacher. I still receive texts to this day
during December, which is when Caroline became ill so many years ago, stating that they got their flu
vaccine in honor of Caroline. And I think that speaks to the nature of how incredibly
difficult and how incredibly impactful her illness was.
When we left Children's Hospital of Philadelphia and walked to the parking lot,
it was like being on the receiving end of life's winning lottery ticket. And
it was probably a day of my greatest joy. But having met many other families who have
lost their loved one and lost children to a vaccine-preventable disease,
such as flu or COVID, you realize that it's kind of a hollow victory because
every single one of those children was worthy of being protected and having that same fairy-tale
ending, and I'm incredibly mindful of that. As parents, we babyproof our homes and we make
sure our children are strapped safely into their car seats, and we make sure to brush their teeth
each night before bed, and we do all these things to keep them safe, making sure that they have
optimal health. And we're really, I think parents in particular, need to think about
getting their children vaccinated in that same light, that you're just doing that as one more
task to check off the to-do list in order to keep our children healthy.
Each day I wake up and it's the first thing I think about even though that’s happened in
2012. I think about what my child went through and what my family went through, all as a result
of a vaccine-preventable disease. And I live with tremendous regret because it's one thing
that, it's one thing to make the choice not to get vaccinated for yourself,
but it's something very different when you're responsible for the health and wellbeing
of your child or your other family members. A child can't take themselves to the doctor's office
and they can't ask for their own vaccination at the age of 5. That's our responsibility.
That's a parent's responsibility and, ultimately, that was my responsibility
and it fell off the radar and it is something I will have to live with for the rest of my life.
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