A healthy high school in Chicago contracted COVID-19 just before Christmas – and died within days while the virus “ate” her family, she says.
“He called me crying to tell me that, you know, ‘Mom, I’m going to miss Christmas.’ And I had to assure her that it was only one day on the calendar, and when she came home, “We’ll have Christmas with you.” … Unfortunately he didn’t [leave the hospital]”Sarah Simental’s grieving mother, Deborah Simental, told local ABC-TV affiliate.
“I literally ate it,” my mother said of the coronavirus. “And no parent should ever see their child go through this.”
Deborah said her 18-year-old daughter had no health problems when she suffered a headache and began suffering from sore throat and body aches on Dec. 23.
Sarah felt so bad that her parents took her to a local hospital – where she got worse and was flown to University Hospital in Chicago, ABC said.
The teenager never recovered, dying the day after Christmas.
“I have no words for that. I just can’t believe how fast he progressed, “Sarah’s father, Don Simental, told reporters.
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’ll be fine, Mom.’ And that was the last thing, “his mother recalled. “So I know she knows, in the end, we’ll all be fine. We will miss her, but we will be fine. “
However, “I think I will miss some real landmarks that every mother wants to have with her daughter,” said the mother.