Audrey Wiggins thought she had the flu in 2015. Instead, the 31-year-old’s illness turned into severe sepsis, sending her into the ICU for 10 days and into a medically induced coma for five of them.

Her case has found new attention because it is the kind of story that can make sepsis harder to spot: it can look like a routine virus at the start. Wiggins was healthy before she got sick, and the first mistake was simple enough to make — she dismissed the symptoms as flu and kept going until her condition worsened.

That shift from ordinary to critical is what makes sepsis so dangerous. It can escalate quickly, and in Wiggins’ case it escalated far enough to require intensive care and a coma, even though the illness had begun with symptoms she thought were familiar.

The source identifies Wiggins as a mother, but offers no further medical detail on what happened before the diagnosis or after the ICU stay. That leaves the central fact intact: a healthy young woman nearly died after mistaking severe sepsis for the flu, and the line between the two was far thinner than it seemed.