# Do you know someone who has died of the flu? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [March 3, 2020, 11:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-someone-who-has-died-of-the-flu/848855 "2020-03-03T11:14:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Shalmanese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shalmanese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shalmanese)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2020, 11:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-someone-who-has-died-of-the-flu/848855/1 "2020-03-03T11:14:03Z")
With all of the Coronavirus talk and the natural comparison of its fatality compared with the annual flu, it occurred to me that I don’t actually know anyone who has died from the flu. It’s possible that someone I knew did die from the flu and it simply didn’t register to me as anything more specific than “old age” or “complications” and it’s also possible that I simply don’t know enough people in the demographic that typically dies from the flu. I’m wondering how many other people here know of people who definitively were killed by a flu? ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2020, 11:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-someone-who-has-died-of-the-flu/848855/2 "2020-03-03T11:15:56Z")
My Great Grandmother. I mean she was like 98 but I did know her. It was the flu which got her (even money, she got it from one of my cousins, we all had it) Ironically her own mother died of the Spanish flu when she was a child. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2020, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-someone-who-has-died-of-the-flu/848855/3 "2020-03-03T12:40:38Z")
Yes. I’ve worked in hospitals. ---
**Author:** ![kitap](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b9e5f3/32.png) [@kitap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kitap)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2020, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-someone-who-has-died-of-the-flu/848855/4 "2020-03-03T13:01:03Z")
It’s possible some of the older people in the neighborhood where I grew up have. I know at least one of my dad’s siblings is thought to have died of the Spanish Flu (died in 1918-1919 as a toddler), which means he never met them. ---
**Author:** ![Rushgeekgirl](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rushgeekgirl/32/3715_2.png) [@Rushgeekgirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rushgeekgirl)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2020, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-someone-who-has-died-of-the-flu/848855/5 "2020-03-03T15:18:26Z")
In a roundabout way. My mom developed pneumonia from the flu and it left her with congestive heart failure, which was a very long slow and painful death over the next ten years. However she didn’t do somet of the things that could have extended her life, like lose weight. A lot of people don’t think about long-term complications, it’s all about the immediate death count. How many lives have been shortened by influenza though? ---
**Author:** ![needscoffee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/needscoffee/32/1076_2.png) [@needscoffee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/needscoffee)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2020, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-someone-who-has-died-of-the-flu/848855/6 "2020-03-03T15:46:25Z")
Yes, last March my friend’s wife died of complications from the flu. She was in her early 70’s and in compromised health. ---
**Author:** ![Regallag\_The\_Axe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/regallag_the_axe/32/445_2.png) [@Regallag\_The\_Axe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Regallag_The_Axe)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2020, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-someone-who-has-died-of-the-flu/848855/7 "2020-03-03T15:54:34Z")
One of my dad’s best friends. He was diabetic, a heavy smoker, had a general distrust of doctors and medical facilities, and was in his sixties. ---
**Author:** ![alice\_in\_wonderland](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alice_in_wonderland/32/176_2.png) [@alice\_in\_wonderland](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alice_in_wonderland)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2020, 3:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-someone-who-has-died-of-the-flu/848855/8 "2020-03-03T15:56:58Z")
I used to work with a woman who died of H1N1 - she was only about 50. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2020, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-someone-who-has-died-of-the-flu/848855/9 "2020-03-03T16:20:08Z")
My mom died from a combination of influenza A and pneumonia four years ago next Monday. She was 59. In addition, her youngest aunt and uncle, twins, died of the flu in the 1940s at 2 years of age. ---
**Author:** ![Dahnlor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dahnlor/32/533_2.png) [@Dahnlor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dahnlor)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2020, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-someone-who-has-died-of-the-flu/848855/10 "2020-03-03T17:04:58Z")
My great grandfather and his brother (aged 30 and 26 respectively) both died of the Spanish flu in 1919. ---
**Author:** ![StusBlues](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dc4da7/32.png) [@StusBlues](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/StusBlues)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2020, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-someone-who-has-died-of-the-flu/848855/11 "2020-03-03T21:42:59Z")
I selected the “plausible” option. I don’t know for sure that any of my acquaintances has died of the flu, but many folks my grandparents’ age or older have died of “old age”. There are probably some influenza deaths in that number. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2020, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-someone-who-has-died-of-the-flu/848855/12 "2020-03-03T21:55:28Z")
I have relatives who died in the 1918 epidemic, but as that was 50 years before I was born, I didn’t know them. I am unaware of anyone I know having died from the flu, but I don’t know what killed everyone I know who’s dead, so I can’t say for sure. ---
**Author:** ![WildaBeast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wildabeast/32/6_2.png) [@WildaBeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildaBeast)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2020, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-someone-who-has-died-of-the-flu/848855/13 "2020-03-03T22:39:51Z")
Another vote for “plausible”. I was going to say no, since I’m not aware of anyone who has died from the flu, but I don’t know the details of how any of my elderly relatives died other than “old age”. I can’t say with 100% certainty that the the flu had nothing to do with any of their deaths, and with the way you worded the questions I guess that means I have to go with plausible. ---
**Author:** ![TheCuse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thecuse/32/2854_2.png) [@TheCuse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheCuse)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2020, 11:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-someone-who-has-died-of-the-flu/848855/14 "2020-03-03T23:02:36Z")
A coworker back in the early '90s. No one wanted to train for his job and work nights, so I said I would (I was low man on the totem pole). And that’s what I did. And I’m still at work and the ones who didn’t want to train for it were laid off a long time ago and found jobs elsewhere. I’m back on days, but my life would have turned out differently if he hadn’t died from the flu back then. ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2020, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-someone-who-has-died-of-the-flu/848855/15 "2020-03-03T23:22:46Z")
Selected plausible because someone died of HIV related complications but I don’t really know the actual cause of death and his family definitely won’t tell me. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2020, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-someone-who-has-died-of-the-flu/848855/16 "2020-03-04T00:24:08Z")
In the late 1990s, a co-worker in his early 50s who seemed to be generally in good health went home on a Friday feeling slightly off, went to bed, spent Saturday horribly ill, and found dead in his bed on Sunday. Diagnosis influenza. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2020, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-someone-who-has-died-of-the-flu/848855/17 "2020-03-04T02:14:15Z")
> [@KneadToKnow](#): > > I have relatives who died in the 1918 epidemic, but as that was 50 years before I was born, I didn’t know them. Me too. One of them was my father’s infant brother. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2020, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-someone-who-has-died-of-the-flu/848855/18 "2020-03-04T03:21:28Z")
> [@needscoffee](#): > > Yes, last March my friend’s wife died of complications from the flu. She was in her early 70’s and in compromised health. This describes the one person I’ve know who died from influenza, although in her case, she died 2 years ago. She had multiple pre-existing health issues which included an autoimmune disease, and was admitted to the hospital with multiple organ failure and died shortly afterwards. We all miss her, but her death wasn’t a big surprise. ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2020, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-someone-who-has-died-of-the-flu/848855/19 "2020-03-04T03:24:01Z")
Remember: > [@](#): > > According to Everyday Health, one-third of pneumonia cases develop from a respiratory virus, with the flu the most common of those. … This is how those with influenza can easily turn their flu into something much worse — pneumonia. > **[How Does the Flu Become Pneumonia? | Passport Health](https://www.passporthealthusa.com/2018/10/how-does-the-flu-become-pneumonia/)** > > The flu and pneumonia become a health risk around the world. To make matters worse, pneumonia can actually develop from a particularly bad case of influenza. So a lot of people know people who died of pneumonia–and a frequent cause of this was the flu. ---
**Author:** ![chizzuk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e36b37/32.png) [@chizzuk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chizzuk)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2020, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-someone-who-has-died-of-the-flu/848855/20 "2020-03-04T04:20:55Z")
Yes, my grandmother died of the flu that turned into pneumonia, 25 years ago. She was only 62 and had been previously in good health, no pre-existing conditions. Everybody thought she should get better but for whatever reason, she didn’t. I was only 7 at the time but I remember visiting her. It was Thanksgiving Day. We had our holiday meal in the hospital cafeteria and I had a plastic bowl of ham salad. She was awake when we visited and I remember her mouthing “I love you” to me around the ventilator tube when I was brought into the room. That was the last time I saw her alive. We went home and the next day we got a call from my grandfather that she was gone. My other grandmother got strep in the days before penicillin was discovered and developed rheumatic fever and heart valve damage that caused all sorts of complications later in life and eventually led to her demise. So 0 for 2 on the “grandmothers with illnesses that should have been relatively mild” front. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-know-someone-who-has-died-of-the-flu/848855.md?page=2)