Girl, 5, who complained of headache dies a month later from coronavirus

The young daughter of two first responders has died of COVID-19 a month after she complained of a “headache” that not go away.

The five-year-old daughter of two paramedics has died after a coronavirus infection left her likely brain dead on a ventilator, her family says.

Little Skylar Herbert from Michigan first complained a month ago about bad headaches — however her symptoms were from COVID-19 which had caused a form of meningitis that led to swelling of her brain, her parents told the Detroit News.

“We decided to take her off the ventilator today because her improvement had stopped. The doctors told us that it was possible she was brain dead,” her mother, LaVondria Herbert, said.

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Little Skylar Herbert died of coronavirus. Picture: Supplied

“We basically just knew she wasn’t coming back to us,” said the 46-year-old, who has been a police officer for 25 years.

Skylar had initially tested positive for strep throat on March 23, with her paediatrician sending her home with antibiotics. But her parents took her to the ER after she stayed up “crying all night and saying the headache would not go away”, her mum recalled.

She was tested for COVID-19 at Beaumont Royal Oak, and it came back positive the next day. The family returned the next day, this time because Skylar’s dad — firefighter Ebbie Herbert — showed symptoms of the bug. The youngster had a seizure while her father was being tested, and tests later revealed meningitis.

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Her headaches ‘would not go away’. Picture: Supplied

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Her parents told Detroit News they didn’t know how she became infected because she had stayed home for weeks and had no pre-existing conditions. Her father’s test came back inconclusive despite his symptoms, they say.

Skylar is the first child to have died of the contagion in Michigan, the paper said.

“The loss of a child, at any time, under any circumstances, is a tragedy,” a spokesman for Beaumont Health told the paper.

“We are heartbroken that COVID-19 has taken the life of a child. We extend our deepest sympathy to Skylar’s family and all others who have lost a loved one to this virus.”

This article originally appeared on the New York Post and was reproduced with permission