A husband and three children are left grieving after an otherwise healthy 29-year-old woman died of the flu virus.
Alice Jones, 29, died Jan. 6 at University General Hospital in Dallas after being sick for four days, ABC News reported.
“She was congested and had a sore throat and her head was hurting,” her husband, Darrell Jones, told ABC. “We both had a fever, but I got over it in the first two days.”
Alice had no history of asthma or respiratory illness, Darrell said. Neither he nor his wife had received a flu shot this year.
Alice became sick Thursday Jan. 2, and her symptoms worsened Sunday when she began experiencing shortness of breath. Darrell the next day took his wife to a clinic, where staff discovered her blood pressure was low. She was rushed to the hospital, where she began experiencing seizures — doctors were unable to stabilize her.
Staff at the hospital told Darrell his wife had flu strains A and B.
“It was a big shock. I still can’t really believe it,” Darell, 27, said.
“I made it through Afghanistan and thought we would move on with our lives. I was thinking that was the most dangerous part of our marriage.”
While age and the presence of other health conditions may play a role in severity of flu, health experts aren’t sure why it strikes some people more severely than others, Dr. Andrew Eisenberg, medical advisor for Families Fighting the Flu, told ABC. Genetics may play a role, he said.
Flu activity was high in 25 states for the week ending Dec. 28, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Texas has reported the greatest number of flu-related deaths, at 19. It also claimed two of the six reported pediatric deaths.
The CDC recommends an annual flu vaccination for most people 6 months or older, and advised in its most recent report that people should still get vaccinated if they haven’t already. Flu season usually peaks in January and February.
tmiller@nydailynews.com