Apparently, college students dying of flu isnt that uncommon. Overly focused on their studies, they dont get any rest and they dont get enough fluids.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Sometimes flu causes what is called a cytokine storm, where the immune system way over reacts and basically the patient dies from their own immune system gone wild. Happens more with younger than older people as their immune systems are stronger. A lot of people in the 1918 flu pandemic died this way. Sorry I can’t remember medical terms etc but read a lot about this more than 10 years ago.
However, most of the “near deaths’ From flu are secondary pneumonia. We almost lost two kids back in the early 1990s from staph pneumonia: both got sick very quickly and we had to air flight them out to the university hospital.
luckily antibiotics still worked back then, but now there is antibiotic resistance.