Grieving mother urges people to get flu vaccine after son dies

The parents of a 27-year-old who died from the flu have made an emotional appeal for people to get vaccinated.

Te Arani Anthony Munro-Campbell died this month, just days after contracting the disease.

Parents Robyne and Eugene Te Whaiti don’t want anyone else to go through what the whānau of Hawke’s Bay have experienced and are urging others to get vaccinated against the flu.

Te Arani and other members of his whānau contracted influenza earlier this month, which became fatal within days.

“My husband took him to the doctor on Sunday to the ER, and he came back, and he wasn’t the same. He was very sick. He kept saying ‘Mom, my head hurts,’ but I was too sick to help him.

“(On Monday) my husband took me to the doctor, where we were rushed to the hospital. When we left the hospital, everything was such a blur because it happened so fast,” she said.

“We were immediately sent to intensive care, where… I didn’t get out until (the following) Monday because I wanted to be at my son’s funeral. Because he passed away on Wednesday.

“It was my worst nightmare.”

Paying tribute to her son, she said: “He was cheerful. He was shy. He was very shy. Helpful, loyal, loved children.”

“He had his niece and nephew who called him Uncle Demon, and he was just so close to them. His cousins, his brothers, he has a couple of sisters. Everybody just loved him.”

Taken to hospital

The horror began two weeks ago when Robyne’s husband Eugene fell ill. She took him to the hospital on Friday, but felt herself getting sick.

“I took him to the hospital and while we were there, and all those hours we were waiting, I started to feel cold. And then on Saturday, I couldn’t breathe as well as I could.

“And then Sunday, it was just, yeah. I was up all night, Sunday night, and then Monday came, 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 out of breath that I just, you know. I just couldn’t walk.”

Eugene said Te Arani told him he was fine after he visited the hospital on Sunday and was put on a drip.

“We came home from the ER and Sunday afternoon he said he was feeling a little better. Then Monday came, (Robyne) went to the doctor first and then we were sent to the ER.”

Robyne was admitted to the hospital and immediately admitted to intensive care. Little did they know that this would be the last time she would see her son alive.

Eugene said Te Arani told him he was having trouble breathing when he got home after taking Robyne to hospital.

“I said, well, just get in the truck and I’ll take you, and his thing was, oh no, it’s going to be okay, Dad.”

On Tuesday, Te Arani’s health continued to deteriorate. Eugene called his sister, a nurse, to check on him. He said she had checked Te Arani’s blood pressure and temperature, “and they were all more or less normal,” but he still wondered if it was because his son was sleeping shirtless and without blankets.

He said her biggest concern was his breathing. “And after she left I said (to Te Arani), come on, we’re going back to the ER. And he went, he just wouldn’t move. He just said, no.

“Then Wednesday came, I went in there and I started to get really worried. He didn’t have a top on, he (had) kicked the covers off of him, and because he was cold, but he was still alive because he was groaning.

“When I picked him up, I said, ‘Come on, I’ll take you with me.’ I wanted to pick him up, put his shirt on and put my arms under him and pick him up, because I wanted to throw him over my shoulder, but I almost fell with him.”

The flu: ‘We didn’t know anything about it’

Te Arani died shortly afterwards of pneumonia brought on by the flu.

“You can’t bury your children,” Robyne said. “This is so hard. The only thing I have to say about this, whatever it is, virus, whatever it is, is we need to be more aware of it.”

She said doctors told her she had influenza A. According to the World Health Organization 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 just hear what they had, she said.

“We knew we had influenza A, we knew we had it. But we didn’t have it know.

“We tested for it when I went to the hospital, and that’s how they found out I had it. (Eugene) got tested and found out he had it, and our son did too. But we didn’t know anything about it. You know?

“Maybe if we had known the severity of how things were going to turn out, it might have been something as small as, no, you call an ambulance. But we didn’t know that that… it’s the flu! You know, it’s the flu.”

The flu vaccination

Robyne and her whānau are strong advocates of vaccinations.

“We’re steadfast. You know, during Covid and everything, because we have diabetes and things like that. You have to be careful. So, we were fully vaccinated, boosted, everything.

“And you know what? We get our flu shot and everything, but we just didn’t do that this year. I know honestly, it’s just not… 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 jab’ by early July. The total number of Māori who have received the vaccination is 88,000 – 33,000 of that number were kaumātua over the age of 65.

Menzie Wikeepa, a nurse at Te Taiwhenua o Heretaunga in Hastings, said it was important for Māori and Pacific people to get vaccinated against flu.

“When it comes to flu, flu is a virus and of course the virus can affect many whānau members, particularly if their immunity is compromised, they have a lot of comorbidity issues with their health.”

She said that if people get vaccinated against the flu, “you’re still going to get the flu — the influenza — but you’re not going to get it as bad as others who don’t get vaccinated against the flu.”

The vaccine is free for people at higher risk of getting sick, such as pregnant people, people aged 65 and over, and adults with underlying health conditions.

‘If you are sick, get tested’

Robyne and Eugene share their experiences to raise awareness about the devastating risks of the flu.

“If you are sick, go to the doctor. Make sure you know, and that it is explained to you what is really wrong with you, what you have.”

And they urged people to seek medical help as soon as possible if necessary.

“Just don’t wait,” Eugene said. “Don’t wait. If you need to call an ambulance, just call one. Just do more to get them to the hospital. (It) could save their life.”