'Send your thoughts': Wife's tragic Facebook post days before dad's death of the flu
A 43-year-old Victorian father has passed away after a battle with influenza.
James Day, from Traralgon in the Gippsland area, had fought the infection for more than a week before being admitted to hospital on June 15.
A Facebook post from his wife, Jennifer, revealed a machine to provide cardiac and respiratory support had been brought in by a team from the Alfred Hospital.
“He is intubated and they are supporting his heart,” she wrote in a heart-wrenching post on June 16.
“He is critical and we have no time frame for him. Please send your thoughts this way, he very much needs it right now.”
A GoFundMe established to help support Mrs Day and her son, Jackson, revealed Mr Day passed away Sunday, June 23.
The state’s Department of Health and Human Services confirmed the man’s death.
“Our sympathies are with the family, friends and colleagues of the deceased,” it said in a statement to Yahoo News Australia.
“Unfortunately influenza can strike anyone in the community, even normally healthy people with no underlying health issues.
“Victoria, like the rest of Australia, has experienced an unusually early start to the flu season, with more than 20,000 notifications to the Department of Health and Human Services already this year.”
The man becomes the 27th person to be killed by the flu in Victoria this year.
There have been 50 confirmed flu-related deaths this year in NSW, 35 in South Australia, and 38 in Queensland.
Health authorities have urged the public to get vaccinated to best protect themselves against the potentially deadly virus.
Flu shots are free under the National Immunisation Program for pregnant women, people over 65 years of age, Aboriginal people and those with medical conditions such as asthma, diabetes and heart problems.
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