INSIDE EDITION spoke to the grieving mother of a teenage boy who believes a flu shot may have killed her son.
Lori Webb buried her son just four days ago. She said, “He was just a joy. We are going to miss him.”
Chandler Webb was 19 years old. He was taken off life support after a month in the ICU. The teenager, a Mormon, was preparing to begin a two-year mission to South America when he was stricken.
Lori believes he died from, of all things, a flu shot. She said he started complaining he felt horrible immediately after getting the shot on October 15th. His friends rushed him to the emergency room, and he lapsed into a coma from which he would never wake.
Lori said, “His brain had swelled so much that it crushed his brain stem.”
The family took a cell phone video of Chandler stricken in bed. They made the anguished decision to take him off life support.
Lori said, “I was able to climb into bed with Chandler and place a soft blanket on us. Chandler always like to sleep in his mom's bed and if he ever got scared that is where he wanted to be. So, I didn't want him to be scared to die."
So, is it really possible that a simple flu shot could have led to this?
Dr. Jennifer Ashton, co-host of The Doctors, said, “Statistically, the flu vaccine is one of the safest vaccines used in modern medicine. The chance of death is quoted to be at one-in-a-million."
According to the Center for Disease Control's Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System, there have been 1088 unverified flu vaccine related deaths reported going all the way back to 1990. Keep in mind that as many as 62 million Americans get the flu shot each year, so the the track record for safety is excellent.
Chandler’s grieving mom wants Americans to know she's not urging people to avoid flu shots. But she wants people to know what happened to her son.
Lori said, "I was always hoping for a miracle that his brain could be healed and he could walk out of the hospital someday. But, that didn't happen."
The CDC recommends everyone over the age of six months get the flu vaccine. Reactions are extremely rare and usually occur among individuals who are allergic to eggs.
