Age: 94.0
Sex: F
Vaccine: FLU3
Symptoms: Feeling abnormal, Gastrooesophageal reflux disease, Lethargy, Posture abnormal, Somnolence
Clinical narrative: My mother - I hold durable power of attorney- was experiencing some problems with constipation and GERD and we decided to see her physician. He examined her for those things and recommendations some course of action. He is geriatric specialist physician, Dr. while there, he recommended that my mother receive the new flu shot that "is four times stronger than the regular flu shot" that had been developed for geriatric populations -mom is 94 and beyond not having recovered well from a broken hip two years ago and in a wheel chair- is in excellent health - takes only ATENOLOL, and has now been removed from that. I was unsure about doing the new fangled shot, but mom had never been high reactive to previous shots, so I gave the authorization to give the shot. That was at - 4:00 Monday. She was taken back to her assisted living facility, ate dinner, and went to bed as usual at 7:00 pm. I received a call at ~ 8:30 the next morning from the staff and facility telling me that they thought my mother was having a stroke. I asked why and was told because she was "Draggingone of her feet" under the chair when she was trying to make the chair move to get to breakfast, she seemed dazed and confused, she did not try to get to breakfast as was typical and they had to wheel her, and she seemed very tired and was spending most of the time in her chair with head down like she was asleep. They felt her language was not normal. I told them to give her an aspirin and call the EMTs. They did, and about 15 minutes, the EMTs told me my mother's vital signs were normal and they were reluctant to transport. They said she roused OK with them from sitting in her wheelchair and conversed with them and seemed OK, and said they would come back if she got worse. I decided to not go to work and to visit with my mother instead. She was asleep in her chair when I got there. I could rouse her and have her talk to me, but if there was a lull in the conversation of even 30 sec to a minute, she would fall asleep. All the staff where quite convinced she was "not normal" and I know my mother well, and it was clear to me that there was something seriously wrong with her mentally, so I insisted that the facility administrator call 911 and get the EMTs back, and described for them that my mother was clearly not "in her normal state" was mentally confused, was very lethargic, disoriented, etc. I did not see the physical weakness that suggested a stroke, but she seemed like all she wanted to do was fall back to sleep. They then took her to Hospital and Division. She was admitted and the ER physician ran her through complete work up including head CT, X-Rays, three rounds of blood tests, an ammonia test, physical exam. During all of this time, I remained with her. Her depth of sleep continued to increase. She could be aroused for 30 or 15 seconds and then would immediately fall back asleep. Her vita signs were OK except for plunging diastolic BP. The average BP ranged from 65-55, and her DBP dropped to a low of 25 while in ER. We arrived at the ER about 10:30 or 11:00 and her depth of sleep just kept getting deeper and deeper. She seemed to be resting quietly, but seemed like she was in a coma. The ER physician pronounced that all the tests were normal. I told him initially about the "4x strength flu vaccine" which I think is marketed as FLUZONE and he said that he did not know much about it but would look into it. My wife, is a medical librarian at the medical school here, and she found indicators of very negative reactions from patients in their mid sixties, some of them saying they needed to be hospitalized. The diagnosis of the ER physician was that my mother was having a reaction to the FLUZONE. I remained with her the entire time and thought by early afternoon that I was probably sharing the last minutes of my mother alive and the she would soon stop breathing and died. This continued until mid afternoon when I noticed her start to move her arms, and the frequency of arm movement increased gradually over 10 minutes or so, and then in another 10 or 15 minutes, she opened her eyes for the first time spontaneously, and she said a few words, and over the next 15 to 20 minutes. She started to talk more and interact back and forth and I could see that her cognitive abilities were returning. After 20 minutes or so, she appeared to be normal cognitively, but still tired. About 10 minutes before she started to awake, her blood pressure started to increased -DBP- and the average started to come back into the normal range. She smiled and interacted with me and regular hospital room in the hospital and kept over night. The floor physician did a complete intake interview. His diagnosis and that of the ER physician was of a very strong negative reaction to the administration of the "4x flu shot" the day before. His plans were to keep her one evening and discharge her this morning to go back to her apartment.