A healthy Chicago high school boy contracted COVID-19 just before Christmas – and died within days of the virus ‘eating her up’, her family said.
“She called me crying to say you know, ‘Mom, I’m going to miss Christmas. “And I had to reassure her that it’s just a day on the calendar, and when she gets home, ‘We’re making Christmas with you.’ … Unfortunately she did not [leave the hospital]”” Sarah Simental, sad mother, Deborah Simental, told the local ABC TV subsidiary.
“It literally just ate her through,” the mother said of the coronavirus. “And no parent ever has to look after their child.”
Deborah said her 18-year-old daughter had no health issues when she got the headache and had a sore throat and body aches on Dec. 23.
Sarah felt so bad that her parents took her to a local hospital – where she only got worse and was transported to the University of Chicago Hospital, ABC said.
The teenager never recovered and died the day after Christmas.
“I have no words for it. I just can not believe how fast it has progressed, “said Sarah’s father, Don Simental.
Deborah said the only consolation for her and her husband was that they could be at their daughter’s bed when she died.
“She said, ‘I’m going to get well, Mom. “And that was the last thing,” the mother recalls. ‘So I know she knows we’ll be fine in the end. We’re going to miss her, but we’ll get it right. ‘
Still, “I think I’m going to miss some real milestones that every mom wants with her daughter,” the mother said.