- Shari Hall told an insider she was “too busy” to get her flu shot.
- A virus attacked her heart. She lost her leg and part of her leg due to her poor circulation.
- A grandmother of six hopes others can learn from her experience and get a flu shot.
More than five months into the flu season, Shari Hall of Brownsburg, Indiana has missed her annual vaccination. influenza vaccination.
“I went through it every fall at the clinic,” Hall told the insider.
Then my 57 year old grandmother came down with the flu. Her case was so serious that she continued to attack her heart, she spent several weeks in a coma in the hospital. Her surgeon amputated part of her left and right leg to keep her alive.
“I try to stay positive,” Hall said of her situation. “But I miss everything I was able to do before I got sick.” We are spreading awareness of why it is important to get an injection every year.
Hospitalizations for influenza are relatively rare in the United States, but However, risk increases with ageGetting the flu vaccine reduces the risk of hospitalization and complications such as heart attack and stroke. According to Northwestern Medicine.
Hall said he was in good health before he developed the flu. She needed a lot of energy, she said, to keep up with the children attending the daycare she runs from her home.
Hall has vague memories of getting sick in the hospital
One morning in February 2018, she woke up feeling weak and short of breath. “My face was droopy and her eyes were bloodshot,” she said. “I could barely stand up.”
Hall’s symptoms included three weeks to survive, followed by another 10 weeks in the hospital and 6 months in a rehabilitation center.
Hall said she had only vague memories of the traumatic period when her life was in balance.
Shari Hall, who was pictured before she got sick with her husband Bill and their two children, said she misses what she used to do.
Courtesy of Shari Hall
She said she remembered her husband Bill taking her to the emergency room. She said she had vague memories of taking her nose swab and being told she had the flu.
but she blood pressure was soaring.Bill said the doctor heard her heart and told him something was wrong. Her ambulance took her to a larger hospital, where her medical staff stabilized her before transferring her to a hospital in Indianapolis.
“She was unconscious,” Bill told Insider.
Medical staff were able to restart Hall’s heart using CPR
Bill said family members began arriving at the hospital when he heard the “Code Blue” warning on the loudspeaker. His wife went into cardiac arrest. He said he ran down the hallway, but the medical staff told him to stay in Hall’s room.
Doctors and nurses successfully performed CPR. But according to Bill, doctors told him her heart desperately needed support to keep her alive.Doctors then moved Hall to a clinic, he said. comaShe later underwent surgery and ECMO machineThis pumps the blood through a heart-lung machine that removes all the carbon dioxide and sends the oxygenated blood back into the body.
Shari Hall found out about her amputation when she woke up from a medical coma.
Courtesy of Shari Hall
“It was heartbreaking to see all these tubes, machines, and monitors,” Bill said of the procedure in which the patient’s blood was oxygenated outside the body.
“There were so many amenities we couldn’t get within three feet of her bed,” he said. “Two nurses were with Shari 24/7, never leaving the room.”
Hall underwent a four-hour heart surgery and doctors removed the ECMO. The surgery was successful, but doctors told Bill that other problems could cause complications.
The nurse practitioner told Hall she was missing parts of her left and right leg.
She developed an infection a few days later, sepsis“The doctor said, ‘Her legs don’t look very good,'” Bill said, noting that his legs had turned black.
He said Hall’s medical team had arrived and said, “We have to amputate,” and they explained that if we didn’t do it now, sepsis would kill her.
He gave the surgeon permission to remove Hall’s left leg above the knee, part of her right foot, including her toes, and her index finger. I told him I have sex. “I hope she doesn’t get mad at me about her decision I made,” Bill said, “Is this what she doesn’t want to go home to her?”
He said Hall had been in a coma for three weeks. She said, “She was terrified that her kids and I would be in her room when she woke up and realized what was happening to her leg.
Bill said the nurse practitioner told Hall about the amputation when he thought Hall was lucid enough to understand. ” said Bill, who was at her bedside at the time.
He said the nurse continued, “But this was part of what happened.”
Shari Hall spent her first Christmas with her family after coming down with the flu. They wore her ‘Shari Strong’ T-shirts to show their support for her.
Courtesy of Shari Hall
Hall told Insider she felt something was wrong with her leg. “I can only describe her as hanging, like she’s hanging out of bed,” she said.
She said she knew Bill made the right decision about the amputation when she found out he would have died without the surgery.
“I wanted to live for Bill, my children and my grandchildren,” Hall said.
Hall hopes others will take note of her experience and get a flu shot before it’s too late
She now wears a prosthetic leg and orthopedic shoes to support her right leg. She said she had to spend a total of nine months away from home as a result of her illness.
Hall said she was talking about herself Not today, flu.She wants people to know the dangers of the flu. lower the risk Heart-related complications from viral infections.
“Looking back, I think, ‘Yes, I was busy, but I should have taken 15 minutes out of my life to get the flu shot,'” she said.
“I will never make that mistake again,” Hall added.
