OCEANSIDE (KGTV) - An Oceanside family grieving the loss of a beloved grandmother, who died from complications related to the flu.
Just over two weeks ago, Pamela Claydon, 65, developed a cough, but no fever.
"It was a small cough that just got progressively worse over a couple of days," said Chuck Claydon, her husband of 35 years.
After three days, Chuck tried to get Pamela to go to the hospital. She refused. She had gotten a flu shot in December.
"She told me she would get through this. She said she would be okay. She's been sicker and recovered before," said Claydon.
The next morning, Chuck found his wife on the bathroom floor unconscious. An ambulance rushed her to the hospital, where loved ones learned Pamela's condition was deteriorating quickly: pneumonia, sepsis and organ failure, all complications from the flu.
"We just sat in the emergency room in disbelief. This can't be happening, from the flu," said her daughter Angie Dailey.
Three days after she entered the hospital, Pamela was taken off life support. Like nearly all of those who had died from the flu this season, Pamela had an underlying condition.
Three years ago, kidney stones had led to sepsis and kidney damage. She recovered, but doctors tell 10news it left her body vulnerable when the flu later invaded her body.
"I think we all wished we would have got her, pushed her into a car and took her that day," said Dailey.
While nobody knows if that could have saved her life, her family urging others to err on the side of getting treatment - for the killer they didn't see coming.
