--- title: Indiana 3-Year-Old Who Died From the Flu Was Not Vaccinated description: A 3-year-old girl from Muncie, Indiana died from flu complications after not getting the flu shot. Her family speaks out about the decision. canonical: https://time.com/5156503/a-3-year-old-indiana-girl-who-was-not-vaccinated-died-from-the-flu-this-week/ author: Alix Langone article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-02-13T21:13:37.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-23T19:16:08.611Z article:section: Health og:title: A 3-Year-Old Indiana Girl Who Was Not Vaccinated Died From the Flu This Week og:description: She had a 106 degree fever when she was admitted to the hospital. og:url: https://time.com/5156503/a-3-year-old-indiana-girl-who-was-not-vaccinated-died-from-the-flu-this-week/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt12ed57271a95de60/6989276e929fad2bddbef9a6/3-year-old-flu-death-no-flu-shot.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 7072 og:image:height: 3978 og:image:alt: 3-year-old-flu-death-no-flu-shot.jpg og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: A 3-Year-Old Indiana Girl Who Was Not Vaccinated Died From the Flu This Week twitter:description: She had a 106 degree fever when she was admitted to the hospital. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt12ed57271a95de60/6989276e929fad2bddbef9a6/3-year-old-flu-death-no-flu-shot.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # A 3-Year-Old Indiana Girl Who Was Not Vaccinated Died From the Flu This Week > Sponsored content. 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Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. by [Alix Langone](https://time.com/author/alix-langone/) ## Alix Langone Feb 13, 2018 9:13 PM UTC  Close-up hands,nurses are vaccinations to patients using the syringe.Doctor vaccinating women in hospital.Are treated by the use of sterile injectable upper arm. injection Close-up hands,nurses are vaccinations to patients using the syringe.Doctor vaccinating women in hospital.Are treated by the use of sterile injectable upper arm. injection wissanu01 - Getty Images/iStockphoto by [Alix Langone](https://time.com/author/alix-langone/) ## Alix Langone Feb 13, 2018 9:13 PM UTC A three-year-old Indiana girl who died from the flu Monday was not vaccinated, according to local news outlets. Alivia Viellieux, passed away in her sleep at her Muncie, Indiana home after being discharged from Ball Memorial Hospital last Thursday, [WRTV reported](https://www.theindychannel.com/news/local-news/delaware-county/4-year-old-girl-dies-after-flu-like-symptoms). Her family says they were advised not to give their daughter the flu shot, according to local media reports. “Alivia did not have \[the flu vaccine\] because they had told us once the flu is going around, it’s not going to matter if you get it or not,” the toddler’s grandmother, Tameka Stettler, told WRTV. “We just decided not to put those chemicals in the girl’s body if it’s not going to help.” Delaware county [coroner Scott Hahn told the _Star Press_](http://www.thestarpress.com/story/news/local/2018/02/12/muncie-girl-4-believed-have-died-flu/328845002/) that Viellieux died from the flu and a secondary infection of pneumonia. The 3-year-old’s passing is the first pediatric flu death in Muncie, Ind., Hahn told the newspaper. The toddler’s grandmother said the family initially brought Viellieux, who had a 106 degree fever, to a walk-in medical clinic where she tested positive for Influenza A, and was then sent to the hospital emergency room, WRTV reported. When she appeared to being doing better after a three day stay, the hospital sent her home, Stettler said in her interview with the station. Viellieux would have turned four next month. So far, 167 flu deaths and three school-wide outbreaks have been reported in Indiana this flu season, according to the Indiana State Department of Health’s [weekly influenza report](http://www.in.gov/isdh/files/Weekly%20Influenza%20Report-Week%205-2017-2018.pdf). ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5156503/a-3-year-old-indiana-girl-who-was-not-vaccinated-died-from-the-flu-this-week/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5156503/a-3-year-old-indiana-girl-who-was-not-vaccinated-died-from-the-flu-this-week/"},"headline":"A 3-Year-Old Indiana Girl Who Was Not Vaccinated Died From the Flu This Week","datePublished":"2018-02-13T21:13:37.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-23T19:16:08.611Z","description":"She had a 106 degree fever when she was admitted to the hospital","url":"https://time.com/5156503/a-3-year-old-indiana-girl-who-was-not-vaccinated-died-from-the-flu-this-week/","keywords":["health","flu","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt12ed57271a95de60/6989276e929fad2bddbef9a6/3-year-old-flu-death-no-flu-shot.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Alix Langone","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/alix-langone/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt12ed57271a95de60/6989276e929fad2bddbef9a6/3-year-old-flu-death-no-flu-shot.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"3-year-old-flu-death-no-flu-shot.jpg","caption":"Close-up hands,nurses are vaccinations to patients using the syringe.Doctor vaccinating women in hospital.Are treated by the use of sterile injectable upper arm. injection","creditText":"wissanu01 - Getty Images/iStockphoto","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/health/","name":"health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5156503/a-3-year-old-indiana-girl-who-was-not-vaccinated-died-from-the-flu-this-week/","name":"A 3-Year-Old Indiana Girl Who Was Not Vaccinated Died From the Flu This Week"}}]}] ```