A 4-year-old girl in Texas died of COVID-19 in her sleep at home within hours of showing symptoms.
Kali Cook’s mother, Karra Harwood was diagnosed with COVID on Monday and was in isolation because she did not want to get any other member of her family sick, she told the Galveston Daily News, but around 2 a.m Tuesday, Kali developed a fever and was given medication to fight it. Hours later she died in her sleep.
Kali never tested positive for COVID but the Galveston County Medical Examiner’s Office confirmed she had the virus at the time of her death. Her mother said she had no underlying medical conditions and was not diagnosed with any immune diseases, though she tends to get sicker than her other siblings.
Kali had just started pre-school at Kenneth E. Little Elementary School in Bacliff Texas. She was last in class on September 1. Officials do not believe she contracted the virus at school since contact tracing showed that no students or adults who were in close contact with her had tested positive for the virus.
“She was so funny and sassy,” Harwood said. “She wasn’t your average little girl. She’d rather play with worms and frogs than wear bows. She was just so pretty and full of life.”
Harwood was not vaccinated. She wrote in a Facebook post that she and her fiance, who she says has lung problems, were debating whether or not to get vaccinated when the virus infected their household. Her 5-month-old son also caught the virus and has been taken to the hospital.
“I was one of the people that was anti, I was against it,” she said. “Now, I wish I never was.”
The family has set up a GoFundMe to help with final expenses.
