Teen Hospitalized Over Swine Flu Complications Heads Home
By LITA BECK
Updated 6:45 PM CST, Sun, Oct 18, 2009
A teenage girl with swine flu went home Sunday after three weeks of hospitalization.
Jessica Samples, 15, said she was feeling a little weak but was happy to be going home.
"I'm a little tired but I feel good," she said. "I'm feeling a lot better."
Doctors at Cook Children's Medical Center in Fort Worth saved Samples' life using an extracorporeal membrane oxygenation machine, a heart/lung bypass device that took over the work of her ailing heart.
Doctors said Friday that Samples had a "very severe case of heart dysfunction resulting from her flu" and may not have lived without the machine.
Her mother, Andrea Samples, said acting quickly after her daughter developed flu-like symptoms saved her life.
"It is my belief that she is here today because we acted in time," she said. "Time was on our side. Again, act, don't react to your child's symptoms."
First Published: Oct 18, 2009 6:34 PM CST
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