Parents' grim warning after losing 3-year-old to flu
Doctors have issued a crucial warning for parents after a healthy and happy Perth toddler became the youngest person in Western Australia to die from the flu in 2023.
Muhammed Saadiq Segaff is being remembered as a cheerful but cheeky boy after dying from a strain of the flu virus, influenza A.
The three-year-old’s health rapidly declined at Fiona Stanley Hospital, located about 16km from the state's capital, where the toddler went from having difficulty breathing to cardiac arrest.
As a result, he underwent open heart surgery before being transported to Perth’s Children's Hospital where doctors and nurses had to use a machine to keep Muhammed’s blood pumping during the transfer.
Yet despite their best efforts, they couldn’t save his life, with his parents making the painful decision to turn off his life support on May 26 after his family flew in from Singapore to say their goodbyes.
Although influenza is a common virus, it can be fatal in high risk groups as it attacks the lungs, nose and throat.
Typical symptoms include chills, fever, fatigue, headaches and muscle aches, with most fit and healthy people able to recover without seeing a doctor.
However, young children, senior adults, unhealthy adults and pregnant women have an increased chance of contracting more severe cases due to being immunocompromised.
Doctors advise getting a flu shot annually, but statistics are showing that the uptake of flu vaccines in WA in 2023 is slower than usual.
“We have a significant and effective prevention strategy for flu, it’s a flu vaccine,” Perth Children’s Hospital infectious diseases specialist Chris Blyth told 7News.
Despite the chilling warning, less than 14 per cent of children under five have gotten the vaccination in WA, with a slimmer figure for those aged between five and 15 years old.
Dr Blyth said about 10 per cent of children who are admitted to hospital with the flu require intensive care.
Parents are advised to monitor children for unusual symptoms associated with the flu, such as breathlessness and fast breathing, which Dr Blyth warned could impact the heart.
“Confusion or drowsiness is another important sign. Both of those things would make me want to seek medical advice,” he said.
“In the middle of winter, our hospitals are full of people with respiratory illnesses but if parents think their child is much sicker than they normally are they should be seeking advice.”
Muhammed’s parents hope that by sharing their son’s heartbreaking story, more parents will consider vaccinating their children against the flu annually.
“No parents want this to happen to their own children,” Muhammed’s mother Shikin Hasnawi told 7News.
“We just miss him so much,” his father Segaff Sinin said.
The WA government has extended its free flu vaccine rollout to children and seniors until the end of June in an attempt to encourage further uptake of the shot.
Image credit: 7 News Perth