We’ve reached the supposed peak of flu season, and true to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) predictions, it’s been particularly severe. In part, the flu has reached epidemic proportions because of how ineffective the vaccine made for this particular season has been. At only 23 percent effective, it hasn’t been able to protect people the way the CDC intended, and so, despite being vaccinated, some people are still becoming sick, including 5-year-old Kiera Driscoll, who died on Tuesday.

Young Kiera’s father Patrick Driscoll told Fox 5 Vegas that she first started showing symptoms of the virus on Sunday Jan 18., when she began coughing and developed a fever. The next day, Kiera was taken to a clinic where she was prescribed steroids and a nebulizer, however, she collapsed later in the day. Despite CPR attempts from her mother, neither her nor paramedics were able to revive Kiera, and doctors confirmed she had died from cardiac arrest due to influenza type A — the same strain of the virus she was vaccinated against.

“Kiera would want us to celebrate life, to take an extra second to tell people around you that you love them,” the young girl’s aunt Laurel Beckstead told Fox 5 Vegas. “She was the first one to come up and give somebody a hug. She liked everyone. … Even though Kiera has been taken from us unexpectedly, we believe that her time here, her mission, has been fulfilled, and that she is in a better place.”

Kiera’s death adds to 56 pediatric flu deaths that have occurred since Sept. 28 last year. Despite her death, the CDC still recommends getting the flu shot, saying that it can prevent most hospitalizations and death.

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