Submitted by bostonglobe t3_zttmk4 in massachusetts

An otherwise healthy young woman died from the flu recently, and the Globe talked to her family. She was a dedicated mom training for her first Boston Marathon. We're grateful to her family for sharing this with us at such a difficult time.

Here's part of the story:

At 14, Price Meropol McMahon used to convince her older brothers to take the T from Needham to Fenway, where she would bargain with scalpers for bleacher seats, Ian Meropol, her oldest brother, recalled.

Even while working as an executive at American Express and Burberry and raising a family in Wellesley with her husband, the 36-year-old remained a passionate Boston sports fan and a successful athlete — playing tennis, skiing, and even completing the New York City Marathon in under four hours.

But early this week, McMahon’s health suddenly declined, and by Tuesday afternoon, she had died. Her death certificate lists the shocking reason: complications from the flu.

“The doctor’s words, I’ll always remember this,” Meropol, 42, said. “‘This is a one-in-a-million case of influenza.’”

Each year, millions of Americans get sick from the flu, and roughly 12,000 to 50,000 die from complications. But it’s unusual for an otherwise healthy younger adult to die from the virus.

Typically, those most at risk for developing complications are young children, especially those under age 2, and people over 65, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says. Other adults also face higher risk if they have underlying health problems, such as asthma, heart disease, or diabetes.

But McMahon’s brothers both said she had no history of health issues, making her rapid decline that much more heartbreaking. She began feeling feverish Monday night, and by 5 a.m. the next day was having trouble breathing and was rushed to the hospital, where she died that afternoon.

If you want to read more, here is the entire article and a photo of her and her family: https://www.bostonglobe.com/2022/12/23/metro/wellesley-woman-dies-flu-complications-one-in-a-million-case/

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Comments

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ThreeDogs2022 t1_j1fb8am wrote

God that's brutal :( People are way too freakin casual about the flu.

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movdqa t1_j1fbikg wrote

Young, healthy, probably has excellent health insurance coverage, athlete. You have everything going for you and you can still get sick and die. The rest of us had better take good care as we don't have her advantages.

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leeann0923 t1_j1ff708 wrote

So sad. I lost a friend when she was 33 to the flu. The flu is especially brutal this year. Get your flu shot!

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OnlyNormalPersonHere t1_j1fvbgd wrote

Not sure how relevant that is, except maybe that it contributed to her being quite thin. That’s generally a good thing for reducing all cause mortality, but when it comes to resilience against severe Covid or Flu, there is actually a J-shaped curve risk relative to BMI, and slightly overweight people actually have lower mortality rates.

In any event, this is an incredibly unlikely and tragic story. Hard to ascribe her death to anything more than horribly bad luck given her age and fitness level.

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PutlerDoucheCanoe t1_j1gkd96 wrote

Maybe something affected her immune system? Not that thing the other thing.

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Competitive-Boat4592 t1_j1hqt8j wrote

Years back when I was working as a paramedic we would occasionally have calls for young people having some very serious complications from flus and pneumonias. Usually febrile seizures or an infection took advantage of a beaten down immune system potentially leading to sepsis. Always so sad to see. condolences to the family.

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Snoo_11403 t1_j1ie3jl wrote

I thought Covid was the killer?

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