Sarah Simental had just celebrated her 18th birthday last month and was looking forward to graduating from high school next spring, when COVID-19 took her own life earlier this week, just days after complaining. se of headaches and congestion.
Simental, of Tinley Park, Illinois, lost the battle with the virus Sunday, a week after receiving the diagnosis.
Parents Deborah and Donald Simental said Sarah was a healthy teenager who had no medical illness before the coronavirus wreaked havoc on her body.
Sarah Simental, 18, died of COVID-19 a day after Christmas and less than a week after testing positive for the virus in the suburban city of Chicago
A few days before Christmas, the healthy high school student complained to her parents, Donald (left) and Deborah (right), about congestion and mild headaches, which they attributed to a cold.
“He went into a cardiac arrest, he had a brain bleed, his kidneys were deteriorating, he was just eaten,” Deborah told WLS-TV. “No father should ever have to watch his son go through this. No one.
According to the married mother of two in suburban Chicago, it all started a few days before Christmas, when Sarah first complained of mild cold-like symptoms.
Deborah Simental said the virus “ate” her healthy daughter in a matter of days
But the high school student’s condition deteriorated rapidly and her mother took her for a COVID test on Dec. 19, which turned positive the next day.
Over the next three days, Sarah continued to add new and increasingly worrying symptoms, including vomiting, chills, and body aches.
Her parents transferred Sarah to Silver Cross Hospital two days before Christmas, but her health continued to decline rapidly and she was eventually transferred to the University of Chicago Medical Center, the Chicago Tribune reported.
“I know she struggled because one of the last times I could talk to her on the phone, they took her from the usual room to the ICU and she said,‘ I’m going to be fine, Mom, ’and that was the l ‘last thing,’ Deborah recalled.
Despite doctors’ efforts to save her, Sarah died on December 26, less than a week after her diagnosis of COVID.
Sarah tested positive for the virus on December 20th. She was taken to a local hospital three days later, and taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center.
The Cook County Office of Medical Examiners has determined that the high school student died of acute hypoxic respiratory failure due to a COVID-19 infection, with non-traumatic cerebral hemorrhage as a contributing factor. .
Sarah’s parents said her daughter spent much of her time at home with her family and her dog, Bailey, and they don’t know where she contracted the virus.
Her brother, 20-year-old Matthew, had suffered a mild case of the disease in August and had recovered.
The Simentals said they had decided to share their daughter’s story to remind the public that COVID-19 not only affects the elderly or people with underlying health conditions.
“Sarah is an example that can happen to younger, healthier people,” Deborah said.
Despite the efforts of doctors, Sarah experienced respiratory failure and cerebral hemorrhage, which resulted in her death on December 26.
Sarah’s older brother Matthew, 20 (left), took COVID in August but recovered
Three days after Sarah’s death, Luke Letlow, the new member of the Louisiana Republican Congress who was just days away from being sworn in, succumbed to COVID. He was 41 years old.
Doctors said the married father of two children had no underlying health condition that would have put him at increased risk for the disease.
The coronavirus outbreak so far has caused more than 338,000 lives in the United States and 1.8 million worldwide.
Sarah was a senior at Lincoln-Way East High School and volunteered at PAWS in Tinley Park, a pet rescue organization.
Her parents, siblings and grandparents survive her.
Sarah’s funeral is scheduled to take place Wednesday afternoon in Orland Park, Illinois.