Her story continues to captivate.
Kelsey Mullenix is awake, talking and eating food tonight.
Last week, she was in a coma...near death....after being infected with the H1N1 flu.

Kelsey's family has been amazingly open about sharing her story of illness and now healing.
This afternoon, we spoke to her mom, Lori Schroeder, who shared a little of what Kelsey's journey has been like.

She appeared the picture of health until two weeks ago, when USD freshman Kelsey Mullenix felt sick at school and came home to Corson to get better.
But her condition quickly got worse.

"As she laid there last week unconscious it was devastating to see your child go through that and to think that she may not come out of it." Lori Schroeder is Kelsey's mom and has been at her daughter's bedside at Avera McKennan, praying and hoping for Kelsey to wake up and to beat this H1N1 virus.
And then....she did.
Though she remains hospitalized, Kelsey is sitting up, talking to friends and family and has now started eating solid food again. "Last week her being so helpless makes me helpless and you can't help them do anything at that point."

Lori tells us, Kelsey normally gets a flu shot every season.
She had not gotten one yet and if she had, it would not have protected her from H1N1.
Lori Schroeder told us this when we asked her what she would tell other parents. "I recommend everybody get the influenza the shot just because I know any of my kids get the sniffles and we're off to the hospital cause i'm not going through this again."

We're told Kelsey had her family members go out and buy cookies to give to all the doctors and nurses who cared for her while she was in Avera McKennan's intensive care unit.

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