tx hunter fluI’ve been reading about and monitoring this brutal flu season (and washing my hands more than ever), which experts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say will go down as the worst in decades.

There are many heartbreaking and scary stories, but this one from Fox News really hit home: A hunting enthusiast who started out with the flu ended up with both of his feet and nine fingers amputated.

On January 4, doctors told Brian Herndon of Fort Worth, Texas, he had pneumonia. A day later they told the family that Brian’s pneumonia had combined with this year’s flu virus and he was in septic shock. Physicians couldn’t detect a pulse in either of Brian’s feet; a couple of weeks later, both of his feet and nine fingers were removed.

“This flu is serious business,” Brian’s wife Jaye told the Fort-Worth Star-Telegram. “People need to pay attention to it… Not everyone’s body deals with the flu like maybe yours does.”

Brian is facing a long recovery. “We’ll need some prosthetic fingers to aid with shooting,” Jaye said. “But eventually those will all be things that he is able to enjoy again. He’s a man of faith, and we’re all just trusting God to carry him through and bring us to that new normal.”

The Herndon family has started a GoFundMe page to help pay for Brian’s prosthetic feet and fingers.

Did you get your flu shot this year? If not medical experts say it’s not too late.