A mother is sharing her grief to warn others about a rare bacterial infection that killed her son within hours.
A mother is sharing her grief to warn others about a rare bacterial infection that killed her son within hours.
Little Liam Dahlberg, eight, from Indiana, complained of a headache after coming home from school last month — four days later he was dead.
He was diagnosed with haemophilus influenzae, also known as H. flu, which had spread to his brain and spinal cord.
His mother Ashlee said she felt ‘indescribable pain’ as she lay with Liam during his final moments and the medical team turned off his life support.
Despite sounding like the flu, haemophilus influenzae is a bacterium – not a virus – and infections are much rarer and deadlier.
H. flu can live harmlessly in the nose and throat of many healthy people, but under certain conditions — like a weakened immune system or another viral infection like a cold — it can get into the bloodstream and cause the body to attack healthy organs.
Ashlee told local news station 13wmaz: ‘I would never wish this kind of pain on my worst enemy ever. It’s hard. To have sat there and listened to the doctors say, “You did everything right, there’s just nothing we could do.”
‘[And] to lay there with him as they took him off life support, I could feel his little heartbeat fade away — there’s no words that can describe that pain.’
The family is still unsure how Liam caught the infection — he had been fully vaccinated against H. flu as part of his routine childhood vaccinations.
The vaccine — given over three doses to babies — is about 95 percent effective at preventing infections.
Yet Liam came home from school unwell in April. When his headache did not subside, his family took him to hospital the following morning.
Ashlee told local news: ‘They took him to an MRI. That’s when they discovered the amount of bacteria that was covering his brain and spinal cord.
‘Basically at that point in time, there was nothing they could do.’
The infection had spread and caused meningitis, inflammation of the protective membranes that surround the brain and spinal cord.
The damage was so rapid and severe he was declared brain dead.
In a GoFundMe set up to help cover the medical costs, his family described Liam as ‘a bright and smart young boy, full of life and potential.’
‘His presence brought joy and warmth to everyone he met,’ the page adds.
Doctors suspect Liam may have suffered a breakthrough infection after catching it from an unvaccinated child at school who was carrying high levels of the bacterium.
H. flu lives in the noses of healthy people and spreads when people sneeze or cough.
Until the rollout of a vaccine in 1985, the infection used to cause 20,000 serious infections per year in the US — mostly in children under 5.
Today there are fewer than 50 cases per year in young children — nearly all in unvaccinated or partially-vaccinated kids.
But uptake of the shot has fallen in recent years, linked to a broader mistrust of vaccines.
Ashlee is urging parents to make sure their children are all fully vaccinated.