A woman is sick with the flu; He lost a leg and part of his leg

• Shari Hall told Insider she was too “busy” to get her flu shot.
• The virus attacked his heart. His circulation failed, and he lost a leg and part of a leg.
• A grandmother of six wants others to learn from her experience and get a flu shot.

It’s more than five months into flu season and Shari Hall in Brownsburg, Indiana, hasn’t gotten her annual flu shot. Vaccination.

“I had it every fall at my doctor’s office,” Hall told Insider. “It’s been a busy year and it’s been slipping my mind.”

The 57-year-old grandmother then came down with the flu. His case was so severe, it caused him to have a heart attack. He spent several weeks in a coma in the hospital. To save him, surgeons amputated his left leg and part of his right leg.

“I try to stay positive,” Hall said of his situation. “But I miss what I was able to do before I got sick.” Now she’s sharing her story to spread awareness about why it’s important to get the shot every year.

Hospitalizations for the flu are relatively uncommon in the United States, But the risk increases with age. Getting the flu vaccine reduces a person’s risk of being hospitalized or experiencing complications such as heart attack and stroke. According to Northwest Medicine.

Hall said he was in good health before the flu. She needed so much energy, she said, that she ran away from her home to keep up with the children who attended day care.

Hall has hazy memories of being sick in hospital

One morning in February 2018, he woke up feeling weak and short of breath. “My mouth was hanging open and my eyes were bloodshot,” she said. “I can barely stand.”

Hall’s symptoms were three weeks of trying to survive followed by another 10 weeks in the hospital and six months in a rehab center.

Hall said he has only vague memories of the traumatic period that hung in the balance of his life.

Courtesy of Shari Hall

She said she remembered her husband, Bill, driving her to the emergency room. He said he had vague memories of getting a nasal swab and being told he had the flu.

But his blood pressure Bill said that a doctor had heard him on the flight the heart and told him that something was wrong. An ambulance took him to a major hospital – where medical staff stabilized him – and then transferred him to a hospital in Indianapolis.

“He was unconscious,” Bill told Insider.

Medical personnel were able to restart Hall’s heart using CPR

Bill said family members began arriving at the hospital when he heard the “Code Blue” alert over the loudspeaker. His wife went into cardiac arrest. He said he ran along the hallway, but medical staff told him to stay out of the hall.

Doctors and nurses successfully performed CPR. But, Bill said, doctors told him his heart desperately needed support to keep him alive. He said the doctors then set up a medical hall Coma. Later he underwent surgery ECMO machinewhich pumps blood and sends it through a heart-lung machine that removes all carbon dioxide and returns oxygen-rich blood to the body.

Courtesy of Shari Hall

“It was heartbreaking to see these tubes, machines and monitors,” Bill said as the patient’s blood is oxygenated outside their body during the process.

“You couldn’t get within three feet of his bed because there was so much equipment,” he said. “Two nurses were with Shari 24-7 and never left the room.”

Hall underwent four hours of heart surgery, where doctors removed his ECMO. The operation was successful, but doctors told Bill that “other problems” could cause complications.

A nurse practitioner told Hall that her left leg and part of her right leg were gone

A few days later he got infected Sepsis. “The doctor said, ‘His legs don’t feel good,'” Bill said, adding that they had turned black.

She said Hall’s medical team came and said, “We have to do the amputation,” adding, “They explained that if they didn’t do it now, the sepsis would kill him.”

He allowed surgeons to remove Hall’s left leg above the knee, part of his right toe, and an index finger. The medical staff told him there was a chance they could remove other parts of the body as well. “I thought, ‘I hope he’s not mad about my decision,'” Bill said. “‘Is this something she wouldn’t want to come home to?'”

He said Hall had been in a coma for three weeks. “The kids and I were scared to be in her room when she woke up and realized what was happening to her leg,” she said.

Bill said a nurse practitioner told Hall about the amputation when they thought he was lucid enough to understand. “The nurse said, ‘You were really sick and we saved your life,'” Bill, who was at her bedside at the time, said.

He said that the nurse had moved on, “but that was part of what happened.”

Courtesy of Shari Hall

Hall told Insider that she felt something was wrong with her leg. “I can only describe it as a hanging feeling, like it’s hanging from the bed,” he said.

She said she knew Bill had made the right decision about the separation when she learned she would have died without the surgery.

“I wanted to live for Bill, my kids and my grandkids,” Hall said.

Hall wants others to remember her experience and get their flu shots before it’s too late

He now wears a prosthetic leg and an orthopedic shoe to support his right leg. He said the illness had forced him to stay away from home for a total of nine months.

Hall said she was telling her story as part of a public awareness campaign Not today, the flu.He wants people to know about the dangers of the flu. Although getting the flu shot didn’t prevent him from getting infected, the shot did Risk is low Cardiac complications from catching the virus.

“I look back and think, ‘Yeah, I was busy, but I should have taken 15 minutes out of my life to get my flu shot,'” she said.

“I will never make that mistake again,” Hall added.