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FORT WORTH, Texas – A 9-year-old boy died of complications from Covid-19 last week at Cook Children’s Hospital in Fort Worth, his family told ABC affiliate WFAA.
JJ Boatman has been identified by the Tarrant County Medical Examiner. He had just turned 9 earlier this month, according to information found on a GoFundMe set up for his family.
“I can’t imagine living without this boy here,” said the boy’s father, Jason Boatman. “He was just the life of this house.”
Boatman said JJ was active and alert, playing hide and seek with his family and happily watching TV the night before he was hospitalized.
The next morning, Boatman said he heard JJ whistling a bit, but said his son’s health suddenly took a nosedive after he left for work.
“My supervisor picked me up and told me I had to go to the emergency room because of JJ,” Boatman said. “My wife told me he was purple, blue and was screaming he couldn’t breathe. He was screaming for help.
Boatman said JJ was rushed to a hospital in the Vernon area, where he was told doctors were vigorously performing CPR on JJ to keep him alive.
The decision to fly him to Cook Children’s was quickly made and Boatman and his wife made the trip as soon as their son was in the air.
“This ride was a nightmare,” Boatman said. “It was the longest drive of my life.”
Once Boatman and his wife arrived in Fort Worth, they said doctors at Cook Children’s told them JJ’s lungs were filled with fluid and his brain was swollen from lack of oxygen.
It was also likely that JJ was brain dead, Boatman told the WFAA after speaking with medics.
Again, Boatman couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Her son had no symptoms the day before and the family are not aware of any underlying medical conditions.
A day later, JJ had passed away.
“The nurse came over and told me her heart was failing, and that’s what happened,” Boatman said. “The hardest part was getting home, unlocking the door and seeing all of your stuff in the living room.
JJ’s death was the second of a child reported in recent days in Tarrant County.
The other boy who died was less than a year old and the youngest officials in the victim county have reported it since the start of the pandemic.
Tarrant County Public Health Director Vinny Taneja said the boy’s death was a “rarity” and also heartbreaking.
Statewide, 13 children aged 9 and under died from the coronavirus during the pandemic, according to data from the Texas State Department Health Services. Twenty-four other people between the ages of 10 and 19 have died.
The Tarrant County medical examiner has yet to release JJ’s cause of death, and his father is eager to see what an autopsy might reveal.
An emergency room doctor who WFAA-TV spoke to said it was rare for a young child to be a Covid patient and suddenly become so sick and die.
The doctor, speaking strictly on the history, was concerned that an underlying condition unknown to JJ’s family may have played a role.
Boatman and his wife said they had tested negative for the virus and feared JJ could be infected at school.
The Vernon Independent School District immediately closed the Central Elementary School following JJ’s death.
The school district medical adviser said all staff and students should be quarantined until February 1. Classes will resume that day after the campus disinfection, the district said.
“We are heartbroken and our hearts go out to the student’s family,” Vernon ISD Superintendent Jeff Byrd wrote in the statement.
Grief has yet to strike Boatman. His son, he said, was such a joy. Exuberant, excellent student and eager to learn to skate and play tennis.
He told WFAA-TV he stopped by a local target hours after JJ’s death, the last place he remembered visiting with his son.
Back then, JJ wanted a few toys that Boatman wasn’t ready to buy.
On the return trip after his death, Boatman went to buy them out of regret.
“It was just a comforting thing to me. I know he’ll never play with them. I know he’ll never know he has them, but I bought everything he touched and wanted. in this store, ”Boatman said fondly.
“There’s just something about being with him in this store. A person like him isn’t supposed to leave us.”
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