6-Year-Old North Carolina Girl Dies After Flu Diagnosis

The flu has claimed another life. This time it's a 6-year-old girl from Cary, North Carolina.

Emily Grace Muth first had flu symptoms on Jan. 16. Her parents took her to an urgent care center two days later, according to a GoFundMe for the girl set up by her mother.

Even after following directions from the urgent care doctor, Muth still had a fever and by Friday she was having a hard time breathing, reported WTVD, an ABC affiliate in Durham, North Carolina. Her mother, Rhonda Muth, called an ambulance but the paramedics said the labored breathing wasn't unusual for the flu and that Emily would be ok, she told WDTV. That wasn't the case.

Later that same day, Emily Muth's breathing was more labored and then stopped completely, by the time the ambulance arrived and took over life-saving measures she was dead. "She was our everything..she will be in our hearts forever..," said the GoFundMe description.

"This flu is no joke and didn't have to happen. Please all of you who have children please hold them tight and first sign of flu get them to the er...," Rhonda Muth wrote on the GoFundMe.

Visitation and funeral services are scheduled for Thursday in Cary.

The flu is currently widespread throughout most of the country with the exception of Washington, D.C., and Hawaii, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Common symptoms include body aches, a stuffy or runny nose, a headache, a cough and sometimes a fever. The CDC recommends that everyone over the age of 6 months get a flu shot.