The parents of a kindergartener in Texas are speaking out after their 5-year-old daughter died from coronavirus complications.
Tagan Drone died on Friday, Oct. 30, after testing positive for COVID-19, according to her family.
Her mother, Lastassija White, told local news station KAMR that she noticed something was off last Tuesday when the child began experiencing exhaustion.
"She was just sleeping, sleeping, sleeping. That went on until Tuesday and Wednesday. She was still eating and drinking, and then Wednesday night she started throwing up. So that Thursday, that’s when I decided to take her to the ER," White recalled.
Though Tagan tested positive for the novel coronavirus, White said doctors discharged her from the hospital and "told me that she would be fine."
White said she found her daughter unresponsive — but still breathing — in bed the following morning. Tagan died later that day after her parents called 911 for help.
"My daughter was perfectly healthy. Perfectly healthy. There's no way that should have happened," White said.
Tagan's father, Quincy Drone, told KAMR that they felt Tagan "could have been saved."
"This doctor told us that our child would be fine, and our child didn’t even make it 24 hours," he said. "She died within the next 15 hours."
In her online obituary, Tagan is described as having been a young girl who "had the brightest smile and the charisma to match her beautiful personality."
She had just started kindergarten at Coronado Elementary School in Amarillo, Texas, according to the tribute.
The city's public health director, Casie Stoughton, shared her condolences in a press conference on Wednesday.
"[We are] heartbroken, and our thoughts and prayers go out to that particular family and any family who has lost someone here in our community," said Stoughton. "We know that this disease has taken a toll on our community, on our state, on our world and anyone who has lost someone so we are certainly heartbroken."
As of Friday, there have been more than 9,815,400 cases of COVID-19 and at least 236,400 coronavirus-related deaths in the United States, according to a New York Times database.
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