3-year-old Muncie, Ind. girl dies days after being hospitalized with flu-like symptoms

MUNCIE, Ind. -- A Muncie, Ind. family is devastated after finding their 3-year-old daughter dead days after she was sent home from the hospital with flu-like symptoms.

Alivia Viellieux's grandmother Tameka Stettler said the family decided not to vaccinate her for flu this year, reports WRTV. It's a decision she said they'll now spend the rest of their lives second-guessing.

"Alivia did not have it because they had told us once the flu is going around, it's not gonna matter if you get it or not. We just decided not to put those chemicals in the girl's body if it's not gonna help," Stettler said.

Alivia's family was planning her birthday next month, but now they're planning a funeral instead.

"She was eating Cheerios last night. She was walking last night. How does that just happen?" Stettler said.

Alivia's parents found her dead Monday morning.

"They put her to sleep last night and then they went to check on her today and she had passed away in her sleep," Stettler said.

Alivia's family took her to a clinic for flu-like symptoms last Tuesday. She tested positive for Influenza A.

The clinic sent her to the emergency room at Ball Memorial Hospital, her temperature at 106 degrees. The doctors sent Alivia home Thursday when she appeared to be doing better.

"She was taking her fluids. They took the IV out, and she was drinking on her own," Stettler said.

Those improvements made her sudden death all the more heartbreaking.

"She was always happy, she was always singing. She was so full of life! It's so sad," Stettler said.

Stettler says her granddaughter was always the center of attention, loved playing outside and loved being with her sister. She hadn't even started preschool yet.

"She was starting this year. She was already signed up to go," she said.

According to the Indiana State Department of Health, 31 flu deaths were reported last week.

"Nothing anybody says or does is going to bring that little girl back to us," Stettler said.

If it is confirmed Alivia died from the flu, it would be the second Indiana flu death this season in a child 4 or younger.