An 18-year-old girl in Illinois died just days after contracting COVID-19, according to her family.
Sarah Simental, who lived in Tinley Park, a suburb of Chicago, died of the virus the day after Christmas, Cook County officials said.
The girl’s mother, Deborah Simental, told ABC’s WLS affiliate that the virus “literally consumed her completely.
“No parent should have to watch their son go through this,” she said.
Sarah Simental posing for a Christmas photo with her dog.
(Courtesy of Deborah Simental)
Simental said his daughter experienced the first symptoms last Wednesday and tested positive for COVID-19. She was hospitalized and flown to the University of Chicago for treatment, reported the Chicago Tribune.
The county coroner’s office said the teenager died on Sunday of acute hypoxic respiratory failure and non-traumatic brain hemorrhages caused by the infection.
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“She was a healthy young woman who had just turned 18 in November and had the world in her hands,” her mother told The Tribune.
She said her daughter “is an example that this can happen to younger, healthier people … This is real.”
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Sarah’s funeral is being held on Wednesday at Lawn Funeral Home in Orland Park, Illinois, according to her obituary.