Oh yeah, if it's a bad enough case. Anyone over 60 or so or under 7 or 8 generally gets told to go as a matter of course whenever flu symptoms start, and plenty of people outside those age ranges end up needing IV fluids because they puke themselves into dehydration. Plus of course anyone with any other medical condition is generally more susceptible to complications.
What others have said in this thread is absolutely right, though: this is completely normal. The ERs fill up with flu patients every winter without fail, and it's not at all newsworthy. It's so rote that one of the main things Homeland Security worries about is what to do if a bioterrorist attack were to hit at the same time as flu season, because the American hospital system doesn't have the resources to handle a flu outbreak and any other big bug at the same time. The flu patients alone generally max out hospital capacity for whatever few weeks per year it happens to hit in any given area. (And if the big bad "bird flu" ever comes to pass, hospitals won't be able to handle that at all.)
Interesting. My family, including all the kids, which are many in my extended family, never went to an ER when any of us had the flu. We always went to our doctor if needed.
I have had the flu a number of times and it never made me vomit. Influenza is an upper respiratory disease. Are you talking about an intestinal virus or influenza?