Utah mom says healthy 19-year-old son died from flu shot

Chandler Webb, 19, went into a coma and neurologists couldn’t find the cause of his illness. A month later, the healthy teen was dead.

FOX News

Chandler Webb, 19, went into a coma and neurologists couldn’t find the cause of his illness. A month later, the healthy teen was dead.

A doomed man pleaded with his doctors to save him as he slipped into a coma last month — a coma he never woke up from.

Now Lori Webb says the death of her son, Chandler Webb, 19, was caused by a flu shot he received the week before he was rushed to the hospital.

Lori Webb says her son would go to the gym five days a week before he got sick following a flu shot. He died a month later.

Trent Nelson/ Salt Lake Tribune

Lori Webb says her son would go to the gym five days a week before he got sick following a flu shot. He died a month later.

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“Doctors, save me!” the anguished man cried as he fell into a coma Oct. 23, Lori Webb told Fox News.

Chandler Webb spent nearly a month in a coma before he was pulled off life support.

FOX News

Chandler Webb spent nearly a month in a coma before he was pulled off life support.

Just a week earlier, the healthy young man had gotten a flu shot as part of a routine physical. The Utah man was preparing to go on a mission for the Mormon church. But on Oct. 16, Chandler Webb, who would go to the gym five times a week, was sidelined by headaches and vomiting — far beyond the normal “flu-like symptoms” that sometimes accompany a flu shot, according to the Salt Lake Tribune.

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Lori Webb with her son Chandler, in happier times. The mother blames her son’s death on a flu shot he got as part of a routine physical.

Courtesy of Webb Family

Lori Webb with her son Chandler, in happier times. The mother blames her son’s death on a flu shot he got as part of a routine physical.

“Like with other medical procedures, there can be side effects and adverse reactions,” Utah Department of Health spokesman Tom Hudachko told the Tribune. “In the vast majority of those cases the side effects are not very severe — soreness at the injection site, low fever, achiness. Occasionally, yes, there are more severe side effects from receiving the vaccine.”

That number is generally very low. Some 140 of the average of 130 million Americans who get flu shots each year experience serious side effects, the Tribune reports.

Chandler Webb was headed off on a mission assignment for the Mormon church.

Courtesy of Webb Family

Chandler Webb was headed off on a mission assignment for the Mormon church.

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A week after first falling ill, Chandler Webb was admitted to the hospital — nearly delirious from his sickness.

Utah mother Lori Webb is distraught by her son’s death, which she attributes to a flu shot he received.

Trent Nelson/ Salt Lake Tribune

Utah mother Lori Webb is distraught by her son’s death, which she attributes to a flu shot he received.

“I’ve never been so scared in all my life to see my son go through so much,” Lori Webb told the newspaper.

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Six neurologists worked to determine the teen’s affliction — but nothing worked. His brain swelled to the point that it crushed his brain stem, Lori Webb told Fox News.

She decided to take her son off life support after doctors gave her a grim prognosis. Chandler Webb died last Tuesday, a month after he first slipped into a coma.

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The official cause of death was swelling of the brain — swelling Lori Webb attributes to the flu shot.

“I can’t describe how hard it is to lose a child,” Lori Webb told the newspaper, adding, “We’re angry because we believe it’s the flu shot that [caused]it.”

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