A woman died of flu after doctors sent her home.

In Oregon, a woman died of the flu after emergency doctors sent her to treat the flu at home, writes CNN. Doctors explain the death of a little-known phenomenon in the immune system.

Photos from the family archive

In Portland, Oregon, Tandi Harmon and her friend were making the latest wedding preparations when she felt unwell. Two days later, her condition worsened, and she went to the emergency room, where she was diagnosed with the flu and sent home.

The next day, the mother of two children became even worse, and she returned to the hospital, where she was diagnosed with pneumonia, and then connected to a lung ventilation apparatus. Three days later, 36-year-old Harmon died.

Friends created a page on the platform. GoFundMe, to help relatives pay costs, and to support the two children of the deceased, Madison and Jimmy, aged 11 and 12 years.

The family of friends Harmon has many questions to the doctors, namely: why the emergency doctors did not diagnose her serious condition earlier when she addressed them for the first time?

Photos from the family archive

Harmon was not the first to die of the flu this year shortly after doctors sent home treatment.

For example, 6-year-old Emily Muth from Carey, North Carolina, died the same day as Harmon. Death came an hour after the doctors sent the mother with the child to be treated at home.

Infectionists do not comment on any particular case, but added that health workers may miss signs that ordinary flu is about to become deadly.

“We're all human, and we have to make decisions all the time,” said Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease specialist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

He added that the flu is “sneaky”, so it is difficult and sometimes impossible to identify those who can die from the flu among thousands of people who recover easily.

The immune system destroys the body.

Dr. Buddy Crich, a pediatrician and infectious disease specialist in Vanderbilt, said he would like to coordinate efforts and obtain blood samples from healthy young people, such as Harmon and Mut, who died of the flu.

“We would use our state-of-the-art technology to look for biomarkers in their blood that indicate some genetic or immune characteristic,” he said.

Scientists know one thing: cytokine molecules seem to play an important role in the death of young healthy people from the flu. Produced by immune cells, they tune the immune system against the body, triggering the process of self-destruction.

How flu kills people

According to the doctors at the Scripps Research Institute, a large number of cytokine molecules can cause a surge of active immune cells in the lungs, which leads to pneumonia and fluid accumulation, and this, in turn, can lead to pneumonia.

When Harmon and Mut sought medical help, both had breathing problems, relatives said.

Scripps Institute researchers have found that they can calm cytokine molecules in influenza-infected mice and ferrets by administering an experimental drug to them.

Dr. Michael Oldstone, a professor of immunology and microbiology at the Scripps Institute, who participated in the study, said he had not heard of any plans to conduct such studies in humans, although he really wanted to.

Read also on ForumDaily:

22 medical services that are available for free with Medicare

Can a pandemic be predicted?

What vaccinations does the US Citizenship and Immigration Service require?

In New Jersey, an 4-year-old child died of the flu

In the US, an outbreak of dangerous canine flu

30 children have already died from a flu epidemic in the USA

Do you want more important and interesting news about life in the USA and immigration to America? — support us donate! Also subscribe to our page Facebook. Select the “Priority in display” option and read us first. Also, don't forget to subscribe to our РєР ° РЅР ° Р »РІ Telegram  and Instagram- there is a lot of interesting things there. And join thousands of readers ForumDaily New York — there you will find a lot of interesting and positive information about life in the metropolis.