Arnold Herrera Chicago teen, 19 with no underlying health conditions dies from COVID-19 a week after coronavirus diagnosis.
A Chicago teen with no underlying health conditions died from COVID-19 just a week after he was diagnosed with the deadly virus according to reports.
Arnold Herrera, 19, was recovering at home and had brought in the new year with his family, only for his condition to worsen, where upon he was admitted at a local hospital in Chicago, WLS reported.
‘He told us ‘Happy New Year,’ and unfortunately after, he just had complications a full day,’ Herrerra’s brother, Pablo Portilla told via Chicago’s ABC7. ‘He was in pain, and we took him to the hospital, and that’s that.’
Herrera died Sunday, becoming the 11th person to die from COVID-19 under the age of 20 in Illinois.
His family was stunned at how quickly he deteriorated, saying that being young doesn’t grant immunity toward the virus.
Family offer warning
‘It doesn’t discriminate on age. It just happens. And we should all be careful,’ Herrera’s brother, Pablo Portilla, told WLS. ‘We shouldn’t think, ‘Oh yeah, because I’m young, it’s not going to happen to me,’ like no.”
His death comes with a warning his family hopes others heed.
‘It doesn’t discriminate on age. It just happens. And we should all be careful. We shouldn’t think, ‘Oh yeah because I’m young, it’s not going to happen to me,’ like no,” Portilla said.
Herrera loved to play guitar at his church and recently graduated from Chicago’s Benito Juarez High School, where he was a member of the JROTC program.
Pablo Portilla is accepting donations in his brother’s memory on GoFundMe.
