On a fall evening in 1983 I was an intern working a shift at the Middlesex Hospital emergency room in Middletown Conn. when two anxious parents brought their 3-year-old into the ER — he was having trouble breathing.

The youngster was hunched forward and struggling with each breath, each attempt at inhalation was accompanied by the ominous sound of a narrowed airway. X-rays soon showed the signs of a swollen epiglottis (the “trapdoor” that opens and closes with each breath and protects us from choking on food). It was apparent the child had acute epiglottitis caused by a bacteria called Haemophilus Influenza (H. Flu.).

This was a deadly condition that could cause the child to choke to death rapidly, within hours of his first fever. This diagnosis struck terror in my heart, if he did obs

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