Doctors told Arminda Martinez it would be a miracle if she survived the swine flu. It was a severe case and the Shafter woman is in a high risk group.
Martinez, 51, and her daughters, spoke with 17 News from their Shafter home Tuesday morning. Martinez, who only speaks Spanish, told her story with the help of her daughters.
"She's been depressed lately because she's not as energetic as she used to be," said Rosa Martinez.
In late June, Martinez came down with what she thought was a cough. It was a Friday night. By Sunday, Martinez was coughing up blood. On Monday, she went to her doctor's clinic for medication.
"They let her go. They told her to come back Wednesday," said the daughter. "They gave her that really strong medication. But, instead of getting better, she got worse."
The senior Martinez has diabetes, which is one of the high risk groups identified by health officials when dealing with the H1N1 virus.
She spent two weeks at Kern Medical Center.
Denise Martinez says she had to cook special foods for her mother when she was released from the hospital.
While her mother was in Kern Medical Center, Denise gave her sponge baths. "I would wipe her down because she couldn't even get up to take a shower," she said.
Martinez was among the 1088 patients in California who have been hospitalized with the H1N1 virus between April, when the virus was first detected in California, and August.
A new study by the California Department of Public Health, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association on Tuesday, warns that the public should take this virus seriously.
Dr. Janice Louie with the state's Department of Health says not everyone who was hospitalized, had pre-existing health conditions. "Even healthy people can get sick and hospitalized," Louie explained.
Louie also says the elderly are not as protected as first thought.
"There is a perception that the elderly are protected and have some pre-existing immunity," she said. "When in fact, in our study, if the elderly were admitted and severely ill, they often ended up dying."
Still, the Centers for Disease Control and other health officials are restricting the H1N1 vaccines to high risk groups for now.
As for Martinez, she didn't know it was swine flu until after she was released from the hospital.
Her daughter Rosa says the doctor sat them down for some "good news and bad news".
"The doctor told us, 'well the bad thing is that you had the swine flu'," she said. "The good news is that you survived."
To date, the Kern County Public Health Department says 10 people have died from complications of the H1N1 virus.
The latest patient is a 47-year-old woman, who had underlying medical conditions.
