Woman who thought she had the flu ends up hospitalized for something much worse

Updated on October 19, 2023 at 11:27 AM

Suffering from severe headaches and a burning throat, 33-year-old Alison Miller thought she'd come down with the flu. Unfortunately, the reality was far worse than she could have imagined.

It is often thought that serious physical ailments necessarily begin with unusual symptoms. The case of this 33-year-old American proves that this is not the case at all. She thought she'd just come down with the flu, and was back on her feet in a matter of days, but was unpleasantly surprised to discover that her case was far more serious than she had anticipated.

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Traditional flu symptoms

Alison Miller, a 33-year-old American woman, was at work in the state of Wisconsin when she began to feel ill, probably suffering from the onset of the flu. She had many of the same symptoms: severe fatigue, headaches and a sore throat. So, as every employee does when she's feeling under the weather, she went home early. She believed that in a few days, with the help of medication, her situation would improve, as Fox News reports.

But not everything went exactly as planned. She said:

That 'flu' experience changed my life forever.

Her situation rapidly worsened, forcing her to go to the emergency room. The doctors who attended her were not overly concerned at first, and prescribed a treatment for her congested bronchi, as well as cough syrup. When she returned home, the situation got completely out of hand. The young woman was assailed by terrible pain in her back, causing her to lose consciousness.

I've never been so sick in my life. It was the beginning of the end.

What it was really about

She was rushed to hospital, and following a battery of tests, doctors were able to diagnose what she was suffering from: bacterial pneumonia affecting both lungs. If not treated in time, the infection developed into septicemia, putting her life in serious danger.

Placed in palliative care, the young woman was lucky to pull through. But unfortunately, her left leg suffered a circulation problem during treatment. Doctors had no choice but to amputate above the knee. This was followed by a long period of hospitalization and physical rehabilitation sessions, to learn to walk again. Yet another story to remind us that, in the face of doubt, flu, mouth ulcers and the like, it's sometimes better to consult too much than too little.