Author: CNN Newsource

By Logan Hall

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    ASHLAND, Massachusetts (WBZ) — An Ashland, Massachusetts family is warning others to take the flu seriously, after their 4-year-old daughter almost died.

Back in December, Caitlin Lyons’ 4-year-old daughter Althea woke her up in the middle of the night, complaining that she felt dizzy. She took her into her pediatrician, who sent her to the hospital.

“I just remember him saying ‘she’s very sick, I’m very concerned.’ And my only question was ‘is she going to live?’ and he said, ‘I hope so,'” Lyons said.

Doctors at Mass General Hospital were able to diagnose her with acute necrotizing encephalopathy, a rare illness linked to the flu that causes the brain to swell and for the body to kill brain cells.

“Thank god she’s the age that she is because she’s old enough to fight the flu, which she had to get over before the swelling could come down,” Lyons said, “but young enough to have the time to heal, for her brain to heal, because there was damage done.”

Flu cases across Massachusetts are skyrocketing. The state now says four children have died because of the flu, and hospitalizations of children under five are up 150% over the last two weeks.

At Althea’s daycare in Framingham, influenza quickly spread throughout kids and staff. Director Carol Ann Ritter says they had between 15 and 20 cases.

“We were sending children home with one symptom that could have been nothing but ended up being the flu,” Ritter said. “So just kind of going with the teacher’s instinct of being like, OK we’re being overly cautious and I’m so sorry, I know you need to send your child to care, but at this point, children are dying from this.”

Thankfully, Althea is recovering and returning to herself. Her case is rare, but her mom is speaking out to spread awareness, urging parents to be aware when it comes to illness. “I understand they are seeing more cases of this disease, but I think overall it’s still pretty unknown,” Lyons said.

The daycare in Framingham is back up and running at full capacity, but they are still taking precautions.

Please note: This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting. This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.

By Marc Brown

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    ALTADENA, Calif. (KABC) — When the Eaton Fire tore through Altadena in the early morning hours of Jan. 8 2025, three men from the Lievense family jumped into action. What began as an effort to save two family homes turned into a mission to protect an entire neighborhood.

One year later, ABC7’s Marc Brown sat down with the hometown heroes that did everything they could to save their neighborhood.

“This is your street mom, we’re going to save it though,” Dan Lievense is heard on a video as he walked around the neighborhood on fire.

Lewis Avenue in Altadena was engulfed in flames that morning, but the Lievense family was ready to fight.

“I picked up the phone, called my brother who was off duty and he lives in San Dimas and said, ‘Hey, you gotta get up to our neighborhood. It’s on fire,'” said Dan Lievense, a captain with the Los Angeles Fire Department who has lived on Lewis Avenue most of his life.

Dan’s brother Matt is an engineer with the LAFD, and Dan’s son James is training to be a firefighter. Together, the three fought the flames on their own.

“We saved four houses on Lewis, and then on Morada we saved another ten houses and then we saved two commercial buildings out on Lake Avenue and we also saved two apartment complexes out on Lake Avenue,” Dan said. “Three people.”

The firefight began with 20-year-old James, who was alone as his father battled the Hurst Fire in Sylmar and his uncle raced from San Dimas. James started pulling out ladders and spraying with a garden hose.

“For him to stay up all night, you know, brings tears to my eyes,” Dan said. “Without me actually telling him to do it. He made those decisions by himself. And he wasn’t scared. He stayed. Even though he had mom, he had grandma screaming, ‘You gotta go, you gotta go.'”

James’ mother, Stephenie Lievense, recalled calling Dan. “I said, ‘This is on you, this is on you now, whether James is OK or not, I’m putting that in your hands.'”

James said he felt safe once his uncle arrived.

“As soon as I saw my uncle, I knew my dad was on his way. I was never scared that something bad was gonna happen to me. I knew they would watch out for me.”

Matt and James then raced to the nearest fire station, grabbing hoses and equipment as flames surrounded them.

“As soon as I made the left, I look and I thought, ‘oh it’s gone.’ That whole street is gone,” Matt said.

The men worked through the night and into the next day, creating water curtains and running through backyards to extinguish flames. A key moment came when they stopped the fire at a garage on Morada Place.

“We were just protecting the houses that weren’t on fire at this point,” said Matt. “We would take turns and we would just one guy on the nozzle and we would just run in everybody’s backyard and start putting out fires.”

The many homeowners on those streets who still have their homes presented the Lievense brothers with the axe from that moment and James with a medal.

Neighbors say they’ll never forget what the Lievense family did.

“I thought our house was gone and then we got a call, a video actually from Dan, and said yours was the last house I was able to save. It was just incredible,” said Diana Pullins.

Peter Halpin said the experience brought the community closer.

“Normally you just kinda know the people closest to you but everybody knows each other’s names now and this little Lewis Avenue is going to come back strong.”

Dan and Matt’s mother, Linda Lievense, summed up the family’s pride.

“I’m incredibly proud and grateful for these three.”

Please note: This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting. This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.

By Khiree Stewart

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    MIDDLE RIVER, Maryland (WBAL) — A Middle River mother who saved her two children from a house fire by dropping them from a second-story window to a neighbor returned home Wednesday.

Ashley Gubernat and her family saw what was left of their home after she and her two children were rescued by neighbors while her house was burning Tuesday morning in Middle River.

Gubernat said she was in bed when she heard the fire alarm. She woke up to see flames on the first floor of the home.

“Got to my second son’s bedroom, got him out of bed, came back into my bedroom, opened this front window right here. Smoke started pouring out, my oldest son was screaming, ‘Help me, help me.’ Banging on the side of the house,” Gubernat said.

Steven Angelini heard the noise outside and ran over to help. He eventually ran into trouble trying to remove a ladder from a nearby truck.

“He stood under me and he kept saying, ‘Drop them Ash, I got them. Drop them, I’m going to catch them. I’m going to catch them, just drop them,'” Gubernat said. “So, my youngest son went first. I stood on the awning. I reached down as far as I could reach, and I just let go.”

Her older son was a little apprehensive at first, she said.

“When he realized what I did with his younger brother, he panicked and he held onto the wall,” Gubernat said. “He said, ‘I’m not letting go. I’m not jumping.’ And I looked him straight in the eye and I said, ‘If you don’t jump, we’re dying. We’re going to die in the house. You’ve got to get out.’ He looked at me and regripped, and I just pushed him off.”

Both children fell into Angelini’s arms, breaking their fall. Other neighbors were eventually able to free the ladder to help get Gubernat down.

Angelini is a hero, Gubernat said. She also thanked her neighbors who rushed to help, emphasizing the importance of fire safety. Her son recently learned about fire safety in school, Gubernat said.

“He told the doctors and nurses yesterday that one thing he knows about fire is to get low, crawl and cover your mouth. The fact that he remembered that and was able to apply it when this was happening shows they are listening,” Gubernat said.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation.

A GoFundMe page has been created to help the family.

Please note: This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting. This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.

By Lisa Crane

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    CULLMAN COUNTY, Alabama (WVTM) — Some Cullman County residents are outraged after finding out the man who inked their bodies now faces child sex charges.

Jesse Conn is charged with two counts of sodomy involving minor children. Now, some of his former clients want to do something about the ink he tattooed on them.

Cullman’s Summer Ashley is proud of her tattoos. She said they’re all very personal, and the permanent art creates a lifelong connection with the artist. After Conn was charged with sexually abusing a child, Ashley posted on social media that she wanted to cover the tattoo she got from him.

Many others chimed in with the same feelings.

Ashley said, “You trusted this person, the same hands that touched your body and put permanent marks on your body are the same hands that allegedly did incomprehensible things to children.”

Bre Farr is an artist at Silhouette Studios in Cullman. She said she gets it.

“It’s permanently, like I said, like in your skin for the rest of your life. And if you have a bad experience with somebody, you just don’t want that on your body anymore,” Farr said.

Robby Sadler works at The Hive Tattoo Collective in Hartselle. He’s offered to help anyone tattooed by Conn.

He said, “We decided just to offer a very heavily discounted reworks, cover-ups on the work. So that way you kind of get rid of that stigma.”

Ashley and several others said they’ll take him up on the generous offer. She added, “He really didn’t skip a beat. I thought that it was great that immediately he reached out and he said, ‘If you want this covered, I’ll do that.'”

Ashley realizes Conn has not been convicted in this case, and he is presumed innocent, but she said she just doesn’t want to be reminded of these horrific allegations every time she looks at one of her tattoos.

Conn’s trial is scheduled for March.

Please note: This story was provided to CNN Wire by an affiliate and does not contain original CNN reporting. This content carries a strict local market embargo. If you share the same market as the contributor of this article, you may not use it on any platform.