February 1st, 2010 by MWilhelm

(AP) — LEXINGTON, Ky. – Doctors applied the paddles to Maddy Kidwell’s little body over and over and over and over.

Four times in 10 minutes.

Four times before her heart began to beat again.

Her parents, Harold and Edith Kidwell, knew something had gone badly wrong because the nurses wouldn’t even let them near the room she was in.

It was just another unreal moment in a string of unreal moments that had led them from watching their almost 3-year-old daughter play happily on the floor to waiting while she fought for her life.

The H1N1 flu virus that hit Maddy so hard “wasn’t even really on my radar,” her mom said. She’d told her kids to keep their hands washed and had bought some hand sanitizer. But she didn’t get them vaccinated. It didn’t seem necessary, she said.

“You never realize how easy it could happen to you.”

Maddy’s case is extreme, but 229 children have died from H1N1 since August, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. State health officials reported that four of the 39 people in Kentucky who died of H1N1 have been children.

The number of cases overall has waned in recent weeks, but CDC officials expect another surge as the nation enters what is typically flu season.

Dr. Philip Bernard, who treated Maddy at Kentucky Children’s Hospital, said H1N1 is “a completely preventable disease because there is vaccine available.”