Grieving Mother Urges Parents to Vaccinate After Son’s Sudden Death from Rare Infection
What started as a simple headache turned into a mother’s worst nightmare. Eight-year-old Liam Dahlberg came home feeling unwell—but by the next morning, he was nearly unresponsive. Rushed to the hospital, Liam was diagnosed with Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib), a rare but aggressive bacterial infection that had reached his brain and spinal cord.
“They discovered the amount of bacteria covering his brain,” his mother, Ashlee Dahlberg, told WTHR. “There was nothing they could do.”
Despite being fully vaccinated, Liam is believed to have contracted Hib from someone who wasn’t. Just one exposure was enough. Although its name is misleading, Hib is not the flu—it can cause life-threatening meningitis in young children. Before the Hib vaccine became widely available, it was one of the deadliest infections in pediatrics.
Liam’s condition worsened rapidly. Within 24 hours, doctors had to remove him from life support.
“To lay there with him… I could feel his little heartbeat just fade away,” Ashlee recalled through tears.
Now, her unimaginable grief has turned into a mission to save others. “I feel I have failed my child,” she said, despite doing everything right. Her message is a powerful plea to all parents: vaccinate your children.
Hib is 95% preventable through immunization. But when people remain unvaccinated, they can unknowingly carry and spread the infection to vulnerable children like Liam.
“If it didn’t kill, it left lifelong damage,” said veteran pediatrician Dr. Eric Yancy.
A GoFundMe created to support Liam’s family has already raised more than $54,000. But no amount of money can undo the loss. Ashlee’s hope is that her son’s story will help protect others.
“Please,” she says. “I don’t want any other parent to go through this.”
