The parents of a 27-year-old who died after contracting the flu have made an emotional appeal for people to get vaccinated.
Te Arani Anthony Munro-Campbell died this month just days after catching the illness.
Parents Robyne and Eugene Te Whaiti say they don’t want anyone else to go through what the Hawke's Bay whānau has experienced and urged others to get the flu jab.
Te Arani and other members of his whānau were struck with influenza earlier this month, and within days it turned deadly.
“My husband took him to the doctor on the Sunday to A&E, and he came back, and he was not the same. He was very sick. Kept saying 'mum my head's sore', but I was too sick to help him.
“[On Monday] my husband took me to the doctor where we were rushed to the hospital, and then from the hospital, everything was just so blurry cause it just went so fast,” she said.
“We were taken straight through and straight into intensive care where…I only came out [the following] Monday because I wanted to be at my son's funeral. Cause he passed away on Wednesday.
“It was my worst nightmare.”
She paid tribute to her son, saying: “He was bubbly. He was shy though. He was very shy. Helpful, loyal, loved kids.”
“He had his niece and his nephew that called him Uncle Demon, and he was just so close to them. His cousins, his brothers, he’s got a couple of sisters. Everybody just loved him.”
Taken to hospital
The horror started two weeks ago when Robyne’s husband Eugene fell ill. She took him to the hospital on the Friday only to feel herself falling sick.
“I took him to hospital and then while we were there, all those hours waiting, I started feeling myself getting cold, and then come Saturday I was starting to not be able to breathe properly.
“And then Sunday, it was just, yeah. I was up all night, Sunday night, and then come Monday, I just couldn't breathe. Couldn't breathe at all.
“We get the flu, you know, but this was like, it was like another dimension. When I couldn't breathe, I couldn't breathe. I couldn't even walk, without being so breathless that I wanted to just, you know. I just couldn't walk anymore.”
Eugene said Te Arani told him he was alright after visiting the hospital on the Sunday, where he was put on a drip.
“We came home from A&E and Sunday afternoon he said he felt a little bit better. Then come Monday, [Robyne] went to the doctors first and then we got sent to A&E.”
Robyne was hospitalised and admitted straight into the intensive care unit. Little did they know that it would be the last time she would see her son alive.
Eugene said when he returned home from dropping Robyne off to the hospital, Te Arani told him he was having trouble breathing.
“I said, oh well, get in the truck and I'll take you, and his thing was, oh nah, I'll be right, Dad.”
On Tuesday, Te Arani’s health continued to decline. Eugene called his sister, who is a nurse, to come check on him. He said she checked Te Arani’s blood pressure and temperature, “and they were all sort of normal”, but he still wondered if it was because his son was sleeping with no shirt and blankets.
He said her main concern was his breathing. “And after she left I said [to Te Arani], come on, we'll go to the A&E again. And he goes, he just wouldn't move. He just said, nah.
“Then come Wednesday, I went in there and I was really getting worried. He had no top on, he [had] kicked the blanket off him, and cause he was like, cold, but he was still alive cause he was groaning.
“When I lifted him up, I said, come on, I'm taking you. I went to lift him up, put his shirt on and I put my arms under him and lifted him up, cause I was going to throw him over my shoulder, but I nearly fell over with him.”
The flu: ‘We didn’t know about it’
Te Arani died soon after, the cause of death pneumonia brought on by influenza.
“You're not meant to bury your children,” said Robyne. “This is so hard. All I have to say about this, whatever it is, virus, whatever it is, that we need more awareness about it.”
She said doctors told her they had influenza A. According to the World Health Organisation website, influenza has three types that affect humans: A, B, and C. Influenza A and B viruses circulate and cause seasonal epidemics of disease.
But it wasn’t enough to be told what they had, she said.
“We knew we have influenza A, we knew we did. But we didn't know.
“We tested when I went to hospital, and that's how they found out I had it. [Eugene] was tested and found he had it, and our son too. But we didn't know about it. You know?
“Maybe if we knew [the] severity of how things [would end] up, maybe it could have been just something so little as, no, you ring an ambulance. But we didn't know that that would... it's the flu! You know, it's the flu.”
The flu vaccination
Robyne and her whānau are strong proponents of vaccinations.
“We're staunch. You know, all through Covid and everything, because we have diabetes and stuff like that. You gotta be careful. So, we were fully vaxxed, boosted, everything.
“And you know what? We get our flu vax and everything too, but we just didn't this year. I honestly, you know, it just didn't... I didn't think about it this year.”
According to Te Whatu Ora, more than 1 million New Zealanders had received the vaccine or ‘flu shot’ as of the start of July. The total number of Māori who have received the vaccination is 88,000 – 33,000 of that number were kaumātua over 65.
Menzie Wikeepa, a nurse at Te Taiwhenua o Heretaunga in Hastings, said it’s important for Māori and Pacific people to get the influenza vaccination.
“When it comes to the flu, the flu's a virus and of course with the virus it can affect a lot of whānau members, especially when their immunity is decreased, they have a lot of co-morbidity issues with their health."
She said if people get the flu vaccination, “although you will still get the flu - the influenza - you won't get it as bad as what others will get it if they didn't have the flu vaccination”.
The vaccine is free for people at higher risk of getting sick, such as pregnant people, everyone aged 65 years and older, and adults with underlying health conditions.
‘When you’re sick, go and get checked out’
Robyne and Eugene are sharing their experience to help raise awareness around the devastating risks of the flu.
“When you're sick, go and get checked out. Make sure you know, and you're explained to [about] what [is] actually wrong with you, what you have.”
And they urged people to seek urgent medical treatment if needed.
“Just, don't wait,” said Eugene. “Don't wait. If you gotta ring an ambulance, just ring one. Just do more to get them into hospital. [It] could save their life.”
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