Healthy 16-year-old girl dies from flu complications: ‘It doesn’t make sense’

BEAVERCREEK, Ohio (WXIX/Gray News) — A 16-year-old Ohio girl has died from the flu, marking the state’s first pediatric flu death this year, Greene County officials confirmed.

Ryleigh Spurlock’s family said her condition rapidly declined despite being healthy.

Last Tuesday, Ryleigh visited a doctor with typical flu symptoms.

But by Sunday, Ryleigh’s condition had worsened significantly. She was coughing and choking on her own blood.

“She went from a 98.5 temperature to a 105, she went septic, she had double pneumonia, all within 24 hours, all from the flu, and it doesn’t make sense,” her stepmother Brittney Chandler said.

Doctors offered to put Ryleigh on artificial heart and lung support. The family consented, but an hour later, doctors returned with devastating news.

“She hadn’t had a pulse for 50 minutes, they were doing chest compressions, but she was brain dead,” her sister Kyleigh said.

Kyleigh wants other families to learn from their tragedy.

“I want people to know this is not just the flu. I want parents to be overbearing. I want them to know the signs of what’s good and what’s not. Sepsis, it gets you... I want to be able to save somebody since my sister wasn’t able to save herself,” she said.

Chandler emphasized that being healthy does not guarantee protection.

“She was healthy, and now she’s gone,” she said.

Chandler said losing Ryleigh feels like losing a piece of herself.

“I found peace knowing that my children had a sister like Ryleigh, and it just feels like a piece of me and my children will never have that back,” she said.

Ryleigh did not receive a flu shot this year. Doctors recommend that people wash their hands regularly and get flu shots each year.

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