A Parent's Grief Highlights Flu Shot's Importance Latest Cold
and Flu News FRIDAY, Oct. 19 (HealthDay News) -- Austin Booth
was a three-sport high school athlete who never missed a day of
school for illness. So his parents could never have foreseen the
nightmare that would unfold in January 2011 when the 17-year-old
Colorado teen would die of the flu just five days after
developing symptoms, four days of which were spent on life
support. "It was unreal to see this kid on life support who a
few days before was playing in a basketball game," said Austin's
mother, Regina Booth. "Even to look back on it, it's still just
an unreal situation for us. To think that something as simple as
a flu shot could have saved his life is hard to think about as a
mom, but we had not ever gotten flu shots." As flu season gets
under way, health officials are urging people of all ages to get
vaccinated against influenza regardless of whether they have any
high-risk conditions, such as asthma or diabetes, that
predispose them to wor