{"id":386663,"date":"2026-01-04T04:03:15","date_gmt":"2026-01-04T04:03:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/386663\/"},"modified":"2026-01-04T04:03:15","modified_gmt":"2026-01-04T04:03:15","slug":"ohio-teen-16-dies-from-the-flu-it-doesnt-make-sense-heartbroken-family-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/386663\/","title":{"rendered":"Ohio Teen, 16, Dies from the Flu: &#8216;It Doesn&#8217;t Make Sense,&#8217; Heartbroken Family Says"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>NEED TO KNOW<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">A 16-year-old from Ohio died from the flu in late December<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Ryleigh Spurlock&#8217;s heartbroken family reacted to the teen&#8217;s death, saying, &#8220;It doesn&#8217;t make any sense&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Ryleigh had not received her flu shot before her death<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">An Ohio teenager has died from the flu.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Ryleigh Spurlock, 16, went to the doctor with \u201cordinary flu symptoms&#8221; on Dec. 23, but her condition quickly worsened, and she died in the hospital on Dec. 28, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cleveland19.com\/2026\/01\/02\/ohio-teen-dies-flu-marking-states-first-pediatric-death-this-season\/?utm_source=taboola&amp;utm_medium=organicclicks&amp;tbref=hp\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Cleveland 19 News;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Cleveland 19 News<\/a> reported, citing Greene County officials.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cShe 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\u2019t make sense,\u201d Ryleigh\u2019s stepmother, Brittney, said to the outlet.<\/p>\n<p><img alt=\"Ryleigh Spurlock\/Facebook Ryleigh Spurlock.\" loading=\"lazy\" width=\"640\" height=\"960\" decoding=\"async\" data-nimg=\"1\" class=\"rounded-lg\" style=\"color:transparent\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/49fd3dcd2af2c4575a904ddf8d44b27c.jpeg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Ryleigh Spurlock\/Facebook<\/p>\n<p> Ryleigh Spurlock.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Within hours of arriving at the hospital, Ryleigh was declared brain dead, her family told Cleveland 19 News.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">\u201cShe hadn\u2019t had a pulse for 50 minutes. They were doing chest compressions, but she was brain dead,\u201d Brittany said of Ryleigh.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The 16-year-old had not received her flu shot before her death, according to Cleveland 19 News.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Ryleigh\u2019s sister, Kyleigh, recalled the teen&#8217;s symptoms to Cleveland 19 News, stating that she had been \u201ccoughing and choking on her own blood.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">When Ryleigh arrived at the hospital, Kyleigh told the outlet that doctors said &#8220;she was going to get worse before she got better.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Never miss a story \u2014 sign up for\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/people.com\/people-news-daily-newsletter-sign-up-8692701\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:PEOPLE&#039;s free daily newsletter;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">PEOPLE&#8217;s free daily newsletter<\/a>\u00a0to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer\u200b\u200b, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cdc.gov\/fluview\/surveillance\/2025-week-51.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC);elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)<\/a> recently <a href=\"https:\/\/people.com\/flu-deaths-rising-number-of-reported-cases-doubled-in-week-11878190\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:reported;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">reported<\/a> that there have been over seven million cases of the flu this season, resulting in an estimated 81,000 hospitalizations and 3,100 deaths.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">PEOPLE has contacted Greene County officials for comment.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Read the original article on <a href=\"https:\/\/people.com\/ohio-teen-16-dies-from-the-flu-heartbroken-family-reacts-11878682\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:People;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">People<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEED TO KNOW A 16-year-old from Ohio died from the flu in late December Ryleigh Spurlock&#8217;s heartbroken family&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":386664,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[188108,174620,97,188109,188110],"class_list":{"0":"post-386663","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-cleveland-19-news","9":"tag-flu-symptoms","10":"tag-health","11":"tag-ryleigh","12":"tag-ryleigh-spurlock"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386663","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=386663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/386663\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/386664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=386663"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=386663"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=386663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}