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She went to sleep feeling very tired on February 1. She never woke up.
A nine-year-old Texas girl died in her sleep three days after testing positive for COVID-19.
Makenzie Gongora only showed mild symptoms including headache, nausea and tiredness, and suffered no respiratory issues at all.
The fourth-grader came home from after-school care feeling sick on Friday January 29, her aunt Victoria Southworth told KSAT.
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View Story"Kenzie was complaining about a really bad headache and then they took her temperature and she had a fever," she said.
After taking her to Brooke Army Medical Center, doctors tested her for flu, strep and Covid; only the last one came up positive.
"The doctors told my sister-in-law take her home and to make her comfortable, to monitor her fever, and if it got over a certain point, or if there were any other major issues that occurred, to go ahead and bring her back to the hospital," another aunt Erica Gongora told Today.
"There was no labored breathing or anything like that, at that point."
Makenzie had no underlying health issues that the family knew of; aside from being a little small for her age, she was in perfect health.
The family kept a close watch on her all weekend, where her symptoms ebbed and flowed, but never became any more serious.
But on Monday February 1, Makenzie told her parents she felt really tired, and went to bed early.
She never woke up.
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View Story"My sister-in-law later checked on her at night and realized that she was no longer breathing and could not find a pulse," Gongora recalled.
Makenzie's father Nathan is an Army National Guardsman, her mother Kristle a frontline medical worker. The day she died, both her dad and 8-year-old sister also tested positive for Covid.
The family are awaiting an autopsy now to see how big a role coronavirus played in her death.
"Hopefully that's going to give us the answer as to whether or not this was completely Covid related, or exacerbated by Covid or nothing to do with Covid," Southworth added.
A GoFundMe to help the family has already more than doubled its target of $30k.
"Makenzie was 9-years-old and in the 4th grade. Soft spoken, tender-hearted, sweet, and loving to everyone she ever met," it describes.
"We suspect this is COVID related as we can't figure out what else could have caused this, but will not know until we receive the report from the medical examiner."
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