Arnold Herrera died Sunday at the University of Illinois Hospital in Chicago. His family members said he had no underlying conditions of which they were aware, and they remain dumbfounded at how quickly his condition worsened.
Herrera was a helper for whom the sky was the limit, his brother, Pablo Portilla, said.
“A lot of energy, just … ‘I’m going to do it because I’m going to do it,’ because I can do it. The ‘I can’ attitude,” he said.
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Arnold’s brother said his younger brother and sister never saw a problem he was not trying to fix – even in the garage where he was working on cars.
But on Saturday, Herrera’s giving spirit was taken by COVID-19.
“I kept praying that he was going to be better because I knew he was always strong,” Portilla said. “It was not in God’s plan.”
Pablo said Arnold was diagnosed last week and that he is recovering at home, but his condition worsened hours after he rang in the new year.
“He told us ‘Happy New Year,’ and unfortunately he just had complications all day,” Portilla said. “He was in pain, and we took him to the hospital, and that’s it.”
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Arnold plays guitar in his church and graduated from Benito Juarez High School in Chicago, where he was active in the junior ROTC program.
His death comes with a warning that his family hopes others will heed it.
“It does not discriminate on age. It just happens. And we all have to be careful. We must not think, ‘Oh yeah, because I’m young, it’s not going to happen to me,’ like no, ‘” Portilla said.
Arnold Herrera would have turned 20 in March. According to records, he is the eleventh person in Illinois under the age of 20 to die from COVID-19.
Pablo Portilla accepts donations in memory of his brother on GoFundMe.
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