Story of little Jade, blind because of the flu

It is important to vaccinate children against the flu. This is the message sent by the parents of a four-year-old girl in Iowa, now blind because of this condition. A rare case but one that indicates that the flu should not be overlooked. Little Jade DeLucia, who hasn't had the vaccine this season, was affected a few days before Christmas and spent nearly two weeks in intensive care at the University of Iowa Children's Hospital. Just on Christmas day, parents Stephen and Amanda discovered that the brain had been hit. A condition called encephalopathy, a sadly known complication of influenza. Unfortunately, this has led to the loss, at least for the moment, of sight. Cnn tells the story of the little girl. Jade was unconscious and the doctors showed mom and dad the results of magnetic resonance imaging. Her brain was "lit up like a Christmas tree - recalls mom Amanda - they said she had significant brain damage. That she might not have woken up and that if she did, she might not have been the same". Pediatric neurologist Dr. Theresa Czech explained that the specific diagnosis was acute necrotizing encephalopathy, a type of encephalopathy usually caused by a viral infection. With the prescription of steroids things have improved, the little girl has come out of the coma in which she was and has reopened her eyes. But mom and dad noticed something was wrong: when they put Jade's favorite stuffed animal - a white unicorn - in front of her face, she didn't look at it. An ophthalmologist examined the eyes and it was all right: unfortunately everything depended on the brain, which had suffered from the flu. Back in Iowa, Dad wrote on Facebook on the first night at his daughter's home: "My brave little girl, whom she can't see, but is loved by so many". (ANSA).