INDIANAPOLIS – An Indiana woman is in the hospital recovering from severe flu complications which included a leg amputation.
Shari Hall was diagnosed with bronchitis in February. Hall’s sister-in-law, Kellie Lannon, told WXIN Hall’s symptoms started to get worse from there.
“She had trouble breathing, out of breath, had no energy and was complaining of her back aching,” Lannon said.
Hall went to the ER on a Friday. By Saturday morning, she was on life support. She wasn’t taken off it for more than one week.
Her family was told she had the flu. Due to her being on life support for so long, she developed severe complications and had to have her left leg amputated.
“Her feet and toes started dying,” Lannon said. “Then (she) got an infection in the left foot and they had to take the leg just about the knee.”
Hall is on a ventilator, awake and moving, but she isn’t able to speak just yet. She might even have to have her right toes and foot amputated, plus one finger on her left hand.
Her family said she’s making a remarkable recovery and they’re hopeful she will be out of the hospital in a few months. They know it’s going to be a long road ahead.
“It’s still unbelievable to me that a perfectly healthy person gets the flu that we commonly get and fight off and she ends up in ICU on life support. It’s just unreal,” said Lannon.
Hall’s family said she didn’t get the flu shot this year and say they’ll never go another year without getting it.
It’s no longer peak flu season, so some doctors offices and hospitals are out of the flu shot. Most flu vaccines expire June 30th. Next year’s flu vaccine is already being made.
You can follow along with Hall’s recovery process by clicking here.