Jacksonville, 8, dies of coronavirus-related syndrome, family says

JACKSONVILLE, Florida. – Friends and family are mourning the loss of an 8-year-old girl in Jacksonville after she died on Saturday morning of a syndrome related to COVID-19.

Deaurra Nealy was a second grader at Twin Lakes Academy Elementary. She was described by her family as a loving and caring little girl who was a good student.

“She struggled to be great at everything, on her grades. She was 100 and 95 and thought it was not enough. That’s the kind of person she was, ”said Dearick Nealy, Deaurra’s father. “She wanted to cheer people up and lit up the room when she entered. I mean, she inspired so many people in such a short time. I just knew that she was a perfect child. “

According to his father, Deaurra died a few days after the initial signs of Multisystemic Inflammatory Syndrome, or MIS-C, which is a disease in children that usually occurs after infection or exposure to the coronavirus, according to the Control and Prevention Centers. of Diseases.

Dearick said her son’s tests showed she was negative for the virus, but also showed that she had been infected at one point.

“A perfectly healthy child, with normal stomach pain and a negative COVID test,” he said. “And then her fever wouldn’t go down.”

As MIS-C develops, according to the CDC, parts of the body can become inflamed, including the heart, lungs, kidneys, brain, skin, eyes or gastrointestinal organs.

“Unfortunately, this is a syndrome that is quite pronounced when children have it,” said Dr. Jonathan Kantor, of the Penn Center for Epidemiology. “Once again, it is considered in some way a reaction to the body, some type of inflammatory reaction, but it is not well understood exactly what is mediating this.”

The CDC says of the syndrome: “We don’t know why some children became ill with MIS-C and others did not. We also don’t know whether children with certain health conditions are more likely to get MIS-C. These are some of the many questions that the CDC is trying to understand ”.

“The main message is why it is so important that we take COVID-19 seriously, in all populations,” said Kantor.

Deaurra’s father said he also wants to alert other families, asking everyone to follow safety guidelines.

“Many people are told that COVID-19 does not affect children. And so many people are lazy with simple sanitary measures, like masks and hand sanitizer – just something simple, ”he said. “It’s to help not pass this on to anyone else.”

The family started a GoFundMe campaign to help with medical costs.