Man in medically-induced coma after being hospitalized for flu

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama (KTRK) -- Many hospitals have been overwhelmed with flu patients, and some people have even tried to treat themselves at home.

For 38-year-old Adam York, that led to an emergency that left him in a medically-induced coma.

"If we had known it could be this bad, especially for someone young and healthy, we probably would have gone to the doctor as soon as we thought we had it," Adam's wife, Felicia York said.

After Felicia and Adam's three children caught the flu, Adam caught it too. He tried to fight the virus without going to see the doctor.

He wasn't feeling better, and that's when Felicia took her husband to the hospital. Within 24 hours of getting admitted, his condition got worse.

"We thought we would just get some medicine, get him breathing again and go home, but they ended up keeping him because his oxygen level was too low. It wouldn't come back up and so he got a hospital room and within 24 hours he went from sitting up, talking to me in the bed to tubes down his throat, and sedated and on an ECMO machine to circulate his blood and oxygenate it instead of using his lungs," Felicia said.

She said her husband was tested for the flu and the results were positive for strain A and B.

"He is sedated and they have him on a paralytic. He's pretty much in a medically induced coma. It's a little unnerving, it is. And the doctors keep saying it mutates every year and it seems the flu season gets worse and longer," Felicia said.

The Yorks' are self-employed and do not have health insurance. For ways to help the family and stay up to date on Adam's progress, you can visit their GoFundMe page and the family's Facebook page.

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