When the flu becomes something worse - the story of AHN doctors saving a Pittsburgh nursing student
For anyone who works at Allegheny General Hospital, the confines are familiar, but before Ainsley Flynn started there, it was for a much different reason.
"I was at a Pens game, and I went home with a really bad headache," Flynn said.
Flynn said that within a couple of days, it escalated. She said she could not even get out of bed, so she decided to go to the doctor because something was not right.
She went to a MedExpress, and they thought she had bronchitis on top of the flu. Then Flynn went to another hospital.
She said a bunch of fluid had built up around her heart. That got drained, but when she was waiting to be discharged from there, things started getting a lot worse.
Doctors at that hospital sent a "shock call" to Allegheny General Hospital. The team at AGH realized her flu had caused something called viral myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart muscle.
Flynn had been suffering from cardiogenic shock, which is when the heart is not strong enough to provide adequate blood flow and oxygen to the organs.
It wasn't until Flynn was life-flighted to AGH that things started to change, but getting her there was not easy.
"They put her on something called VA Echmo," Dr. Lee said. "…it can support all of her organs – take over the function of her heart and lungs."
Dr. Candice Lee, a cardiac surgeon at AGH, and her team were able to use something called an Impella CP heart pump to turn things around.
"[It will] suck blood out from here – empty it and then pump it out to the aorta to the rest of the body where it needs to go," Dr. Lee described.
Flynn's condition improved greatly. It took her until about the summer of last year to recover when she came to AGH in early January and was discharged around the middle of that month.
She's doing much better now, and she's back at AGH as a patient care technician, where she helps stock supplies and helps with patients.
It's surreal for her, and Dr. Lee, who sees her as someone who can bring a more personal aspect to things.
"It's been really helpful for her to come in and talk to the patients and tell them, 'Like, hey – I've been there,'" Dr. Lee said.
For Flynn, her ordeal and what has come since have brought a better idea of what's coming next in her life. She's studying to become a nurse.
She had to leave school while she recovered, but will start to finish her remaining two years of school at Duquesne.
"I'm hoping once I graduate, I can work as a nurse full-time up in the cardiac ICU," Flynn said.
The American Heart Association projected last month that six in ten women will develop at least one type of cardiovascular disease over the next two decades.
Flynn said her story is important because it shows how the flu can get severe, which is what happened to her.
"They can cause all sorts of different complications that most people don't think of when they get the flu or when they're thinking, 'oh, I don't need my flu shot this year,'" she said.
"'Like I didn't get it last year, you know,' then you can get sick and end up like me.
