The Lion's Den: Flu leaves a 4-year-old girl blind in Iowa

Saturday, January 11, 2020

Flu leaves a 4-year-old girl blind in Iowa

Updated 8:39 AM ET,

(CNN)A 4-year-old girl in Iowa nearly died and is now blind because of the flu, and her parents have a message: Get your child vaccinated.

"If I can stop one child from getting sick, that's what I want to do," said Amanda Phillips. "It's terrible to see your child suffer like this."

Jade DeLucia, who did not receive a flu shot this season, caught the flu a few days before Christmas and spent nearly two weeks in the intensive care unit at the University of Iowa Stead Family Children's Hospital.

"She is lucky to be alive," said one of her physicians, Dr. Theresa Czech. "She's a little fighter. And I think she's super lucky."

Her parents, who've missed work to care for Jade and face medical bills, have started a GoFundMe page.

Every year, dozens of children die from the flu, and most of them had not received a flu shot, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Thousands more children are hospitalized.

Many of those who becomes seriously ill or died were perfectly healthy before they contracted the flu.

Jade is one of them.

updated at 8:39