'Sickest I'd been in my life': What it's like to be hospitalised with the flu in NZ

An Auckland woman who caught the flu and was hospitalised in March, says it was the “sickest I’d been in my life”.

Lynley Ward, 60, got influenza A ahead of the winter flu season, just as doctors were beginning to warn of the new “super-K” variant, influenza A H3 subclade K.

“I was completely knocked out by it for at least 10 days,” she says.

“It was the sickest I’d been in my life and I know with absolute assurance that I’d never had flu ever before, because I’d never been that sick before.”

Her symptoms started on a Tuesday evening with a “vicious” sore throat, chills, vomiting and diarrhoea.

“I didn’t have the headache, I didn’t have a runny nose or cough ... [but] I was holding nothing down, I was putting nothing in,” she says.

“Then I lost my voice, and then I had [trouble] breathing.”

After two days of being “violently ill”, Ward went to her local A&E on Friday morning, taking a written list of symptoms to show the doctor.

“I handed her the paper, indicated that I could not speak and then proceeded to vomit in her surgery.

“She said, ‘I don’t like the colour of your vomit ... have you just drunk coffee?’ I said, ‘I haven’t drunk anything for days’.”

The doctor referred her to Waitākere Hospital, saying she needed urgent treatment, and she was admitted about midday.

“I thought, ‘Good, I’m going to get better’. At that stage I didn’t know I had the flu, I just knew I was really sick,” Ward says.

She had a lung X-ray and breathing checks as her oxygen levels had dropped. A test came back positive for influenza A, and she was given anti-nausea and antiviral medication.

“I spent the afternoon on a bed with [IV] lines hanging out of my arms.

“After about eight hours or more, I really noticed the anti-nausea medication that was going through my veins was working, the other stuff was working. I started to feel human again.”

Looking back, she’s thankful she had a room to herself to recover in.

“It wasn’t too busy because it was March, not the height of winter.”

But by midnight, it was a different story.

“I could hear so much noise out in the corridor ... people [were] being treated there. And as the night went on, the nurses hardly ever came in to see you, just because they were run off their feet.

“The doctor came in and said, ‘Look, you’re much better. Do you want to stay the night or do you want to go?’ And I thought, ‘I’m feeling a bit better and those people outside are sounding way sicker than I am’.”

Ward, who works for the Herald, was discharged to recover at home in bed with a prescription for Panadol. But it wasn’t until the following Monday, nearly a week after her symptoms started, that she felt able to get up, walk around and eat food that wasn’t chicken soup or ice blocks.

“I could only take one step and I’d need to collapse back on the bed. So it’s unusual fatigue. It took me days before I could actually come back [to work] and feel that I was strong enough to be fully present in my job.

“I felt, for the first time in my life, a bit wobbly ... unsteady on my feet, a bit frail.”

She was surprised by how severe her illness was, and is thankful she doesn’t have any underlying health conditions that could have made it worse.

“It wasn’t a thing that I could sleep off and my body was just going to heal. It might have, but I’m so pleased my doctor saw that I needed some help, because it sped up the process of getting back to good health.

“I can see how it kills people. I would hate to have had it in this current outbreak, because so many more people have got it, and I can see how overwhelming it is ... I can see why [hospitals] are swamped.”

She hadn’t had the flu shot before getting sick, because the 2026 vaccine wasn’t yet available.

“It wasn’t an option. The flu shot was being rolled out a month later.”

Now, “I will be vigilant. I hope I never get it again. It’s really nasty.”

Influenza A: Symptoms, treatment, who’s at risk

Influenza A spiked around New Zealand in winter, with Auckland’s hospitalisation rate reaching higher levels than in previous years.

According to Health NZ Te Whatu Ora, the wave of winter illness is “far from over”, with pressure on the health system expected to continue for another three to four weeks.

Flu cases reported include influenza B and influenza A viruses H1 and H3, of which influenza A H3 subclade K is a new, highly transmissible variant that can be severe.

According to data from the New Zealand Institute for Public Health and Forensic Science (PHF Science), 18 respiratory illness outbreaks were reported in the week ending September 6, with influenza the most common pathogen.

Influenza A symptoms include a cough, sore throat, runny or stuffy nose, fever or chills, a headache, nausea, vomiting or diarrhoea and muscle pain or body aches.

For most people, the best treatment is resting at home, with plenty of fluids, steam inhalation to ease congestion, or paracetamol.

Health New Zealand recommends seeking advice from your doctor if you aren’t getting better after a few days, or are high-risk due to being pregnant, elderly or immune-compromised.

If you are hospitalised with the flu, you will be treated with antivirals, and IV fluids if you’re dehydrated.

The influenza-positive severe acute respiratory infection (SARI) hospitalisation rate in Auckland has gone down, but is still in the “very high activity band” for the fourth week in a row.

Speaking to the Herald last month, PHF Science public health physician Hannah Cooper said this year’s flu vaccine is “well matched” to subclade K as well as other types of flu.

“It remains the best protection, especially against severe disease for people who have underlying health conditions, or age makes them vulnerable to flu. Keeping home when you’re sick is really the best way to stop spreading any of these viruses, including flu.”

The vaccine will mitigate the severity of symptoms, and is particularly important for people over-65, those with co-morbidities like diabetes or cardiovascular disease, pregnant women, and young children.

Bethany Reitsma is a lifestyle writer who has been with the NZ Herald since 2019. She specialises in all things health and wellbeing and is passionate about telling Kiwis’ real-life stories.