5-Year-Old Daughter of 2 First Responders Dies From COVID-19 After Doctors Think Headache Is Strep

The Detroit News reported that at first Skylar's symptoms didn't point to coronavirus. Her parents, Ebbie and LaVondria Herbert, a firefighter and police officer, brought Skylar to her pediatrician on March 23 for a headache that wouldn't go away with pain medication.

But the antibiotics didn't seem to be working. "She had been crying all night and saying the headache would not go away," her mother told the newspaper. 

They called the doctor again to check in. 

"They told us that it takes the medication 48 hours to kick in and to give it some time, but because she was crying so bad, I told my husband we needed to take her to emergency because I just didn’t know," the mom recalled.

Her doctors at the hospital determined that the headache and mild fever were symptoms of the virus -- not strep throat. They ultimately decided to release Skylar, but six hours later, she was worse for the wear.

"We went back to emergency at the Beaumont Hospital’s Farmington campus, because I noticed my husband was coughing and having shortness of breath," LaVondria said. "Me and Skylar waited in the car, but out of nowhere, Skylar began complaining about her head hurting again and then she just threw up."

Then the girl had a seizure.

Her father returned to the car and scooped up his daughter.

"(I told her) 'Skylar, look at your daddy, Skylar, look at your daddy,'" Ebbie recalled. "She came out of the seizure, and me and her mother ran back into the emergency room."

At the hospital, doctors put Skylar through several tests, including a lumbar puncture that revealed she had a rare form of meningitis called meningoencephalitis. It's a rare complication of the virus, and it caused her brain to swell and led to a lesion on her frontal lobe.

There were small signs that Skylar might turn the corner, such as her head stopped hurting, and she was able to get up by herself to use the bathroom. But those signs quickly started to disappear, and it appeared she was progressively getting worse.

"She was really in and out as far as sleeping," LaVondria told the Detroit News. “They just cut out a small hole in the front of her head and stuck the tube in so that the fluid could drain."

"I would whisper in her ear and say, 'Skylar, hold your leg up. Just think about it really hard and hold your leg up.' And with my assistance, she did," the mom recalled.

Ultimately, however, her parents made the heartbreaking decision to remove her from the medical device after it seemed like her condition wasn't likely to get better.

"Her improvement had stopped," Skylar's mother told the newspaper. "The doctors told us that it was possible she was brain dead, and we basically just knew she wasn’t coming back to us."

Skylar died on Sunday.

They said that she was in the house for weeks and had no prior health issues. Meanwhile, Ebbie's coronavirus test came back inconclusive despite his symptoms.

The parents told the newspaper that they are hoping for a cure soon so no other parents will have to lose their child.

“She was the type of girl that would just run up to you and jump in your arms and hug you," LaVondria said. "It didn’t matter what she was doing. She would stop what she was doing and tell me she loved me like 20 times a day."