When we hear of someone dying from heart issues like a stroke, you usually picture someone at least in their golden years, you know someone in their sixties, seventies, or maybe even a rare case of a 50 or 40-year-old.
What you don’t imagine is a previously healthy and active six-year-old girl being struck down by a stroke before she’s barely had a chance to live.
But that’s precisely what happened to the rambunctious and fun-loving Danielle Mei Cabana of Canada. According to Richmond News, Danielle was admitted to the BC Children’s hospital in mid-November after suffering from flu-like symptoms that just wouldn’t go away. Her siblings’ similar symptoms had passed a while ago.
And yet, Danielle’s health only worsened.
After being placed in intensive care, she was diagnosed with myocarditis caused by the flu.
Danielle’s heart was so badly affected by it, in fact, that she had to endure not one but two heart surgeries before she was finally able to breathe on her own.
But then, much to everyone’s surprise and distress, she suffered a massive stroke on November 26.
According to her father, Denis, “Dani held on for another 10 minutes” after being unplugged from machines before “finally resting.”
Now, it’s long been known that the flu is a rather deadly disease. Thousands a year die from it, even to this day. But there’s been an increase in those deaths over the past year suddenly, despite the existence of medications and treatments that usually take care of it in little to no time. And those numbers are only higher in child populations, who are usually a bit more resilient than their older counterparts.
Why is that?
Well, health officials are beginning to believe that our mandates on masking and social distancing may be the key.
With children no longer being exposed to viruses like influenza or other respiratory illnesses in closed schools and communities that were shuttered, their poor little bodies were never allowed to create defenses against those diseases.
And kids like Danielle are now paying the price.
