Swine flu can leave a young victim fighting for life

By Ginger Rough
The Arizona Republic

PHOENIX (Oct. 18, 2009) -- The text message sent Monica Beck racing across town late on a Sunday evening two weeks ago. Her son had typed that he was unable to talk. That he could barely breathe.

Monica knew her oldest had been sick, battling what he thought was a nasty cold. But she wasn't prepared for how he looked when he opened the door of his home that night.

He was ghostly pale. He could barely make it down the steps and into her car. He laid his head against the seat and closed his eyes.

"He never said a word," she recalls. "He didn't even ask me where I was taking him."

Since that day, Monica has kept a vigil by her son's bedside at Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center. Shortly after going into the hospital, the Phoenix man tested positive for H1N1 "swine" flu.

He lies in bed, unconscious, immobilized and breathing through a ventilator.

On at least two occasions his condition has turned grave, and Monica remains fearful for her son's life. ...

... "The way it hit him, and took him over . . . It's like it just consumed him," Monica says, hands shaking, as she sits in a lounge outside the hospital room. "I've never seen anything like it."

Read the entire article in The Arizona Republic

Learn more about H1N1 "swine" flu precautions you can take at BannerHealth.com