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The heartbreaking story of Emma Splan and a mother's plea for flu shots

STAMFORD, Conn. — Christy Pugh finds strength at her sewing machine.

Every stitch, every seam -- in every quilt she makes -- is the memory of her only child, a little girl named Emma Splan. She carries her daughter in the ink on her arm and the memories in her heart.

Emma was just 6-years-old. She was a healthy and happy child who loved to dance and play with her friends. She had a special passion for animals and could often be found at the Norwalk Animal Shelter reading to the rescues.

"She was just the sweetest kindest soul you would ever meet," Pugh said. "She was the kid who would go up to the kid who had nobody to play with."

But on February 18, Emma's bright light  went dark. She became the second child in Connecticut this year to die from the flu. It happened just five days after Emma came home from school with a runny nose.

"But then she started getting grumpy, which really isn't like her.  So, I said, you know, let's go take her in and see if we can do anything for her," Pugh explained.

At the doctor's office, they learned it was the flu. Emma did get a flu shot, but the vaccine is not 100 percent effective. Still, there was no cause for alarm.

"We just kept Emma home from school the next day --Valentine's Day -- played, kept her drinking a lot of fluids, soups, Pedialyte, all that kind of stuff and she was fine.

And over the next several days, Emma continued to improve. But Friday night, she started vomiting. Her parents took her to the pediatric urgent care where she was given anti-nausea medication and sent home. But the vomiting continued, so they drove Emma to Stamford Hospital.

"They were doing IVs and all sorts of stuff, running tests for a million things. And then she really went downhill," Pugh explained.

On a Snowy Night, Emma was rushed by ambulance to the pediatric intensive care unit at Yale New Haven Hospital. At first, she seemed to improve.

"She was sitting up, she went to the bathroom, she was talking, she wanted an ice pack," Pugh said.

Then, the unthinkable happened.

"And then, uh, she had the oxygen thing," she said, tearing up. "It's like the tube rests on your neck and she doesn't like things on her neck and so then she said it was choking her, and then she coughed, and she died."

Emma died from myocarditis, an inflammation of the heart muscle. The flu virus had damaged her big and loving heart. Doctors tried for 30 minutes to get her heart beating again, but there was nothing anyone could do.

"I have no idea how we walked out of there. I mean it took hours for us to leave the room. It was horrible," Pugh said.

Life without their little girl will never be the same, but Christy Pugh finds comfort in knowing they did all they could to help Emma. That's why she is urging all parents to protect their children this flu season.

"Please get them the flu shot," she said. "I mean Emma had the flu shot, we did everything right. We didn't -- not take her to the doctor, you know, we did everything correctly and it still took Emma away from us...the flu -- it's not a joke."

Christy's focus now is making sure Emma's kind spirit lives on. So far she has raised $5,000 for dance scholarships at Emma's ballet school and $4,000 for the animals Emma loved so much at the shelter.