12-year-old Washington girl dies from flu

The family of a 12-year-old girl who died after contracting the flu said her illness progressed like “a freight train.”

Peggy Lowery, of Kitsap County, Washington, described her daughter Piper as a usually very healthy child, according to Fox 8. On Tuesday, Jan. 12, Piper presented a high fever, and her family took her to the doctor, who prescribed her Tamiflu. Piper would see the doctor two more times before being told to go to the hospital if symptoms did not improve.

“She continued to have high fevers just like me; it was horrible,” Peggy told Q13Fox.

Pegy told Fox 8 that her daughter began vomiting blood, and as they were on their way to the hospital, Piper collapsed in her arms.

“Her legs were spaghetti noodles,” Pegy told Q13Fox. “It just went that way, and she said, ‘Oh momma,’ and she collapsed in my arms.”

Doctors were unable to revive her. “The flu attacked her kidneys, so it caused renal failure,” Pegy told Fox 8.

“They let me lay there and hold her for hours, and they were so kind to us,” she told Q13Fox.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there have been only seven pediatric flu deaths nationwide since Oct. 4, 2015, when the CDC began tracking the flu for this season.

Piper is the second person to die from complications from the flu this season in Kitsap County. Officials are urging others in the community to get vaccinated.

“She loved life,” Pegy told QFox13.