Alexa Rose Veit, 15, who survived Leukemia in 2019, first began coming down with COVID-19 symptoms on Oct. 26. Not long after, her mom also began feelin unwell.
A Kentucky teenager, who was born with down syndrome and beat Leukemia last year, has died from coronavirus. She was just 15 years old.
Alexa Rose Veit began experiencing COVID-19 symptoms on Oct. 26. Not long after, her mother also began feeling unwell. They both tested positive for coronavirus, according to a statement from Ballard County Emergency Management Director Travis Holder.
As Alexa's mother's condition worsened and she was hospitalized, her grandparents were also hospitalized with the virus.
Though Alexa at first was experiencing only mild symptoms, she too got worse. She was eventually hospitalized in Nashville, Tennessee after developing pneumonia. Her older sister, Kelley, who had recently recovered from coronavirus, was with her, as their mother was still hospitalized.
Alexa's condition continued to worsen and she was placed on a ventilator. She succumbed to the virus on Nov. 15. It was one day after her mother had been released from the hospital and had rushed to be at her daughter’s side.
Alexa was a freshman at Ballard Memorial High School. “Our world is a little less bright today without Alexa in it, and she will be missed always,” Ballard Memorial High School wrote on its Facebook page. “We will miss her special kind of mischief, her infectious smile, and the laugh that never failed to light up a room. Alexa was a regular visitor in our office. She made her rounds in the building, and we all looked forward to seeing what fun she’d bring us every morning.”
Ballard County Emergency Management Director Travis Holder also took to social media to share Alexa's story.
“By now you are probably thinking ‘why is he telling us this?’" Holder wrote. "Alexa was 15 years old, granted she did have pre-existing health conditions, but she was 15 years old.
"I am telling you this because we have got to come to the realization that this is real," he continued. "This isn’t political, it's not something that ‘has always been here’ it is real. We must start taking the precautions seriously. There is not anything that we can do to get rid of COVID-19, but it is our duty as Citizens to do everything that we can to reduce the spread to our fellow man."
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