12-Year-Old NJ Girl Dies Following COVID-19, Diabetes Diagnoses

A 12-year-old from South Jersey died just two days after being diagnosed with Type-1 diabetes and testing positive for COVID-19, triggering an outpouring of support from the local community.

Amelia Sophia Perry began feeling ill on Sept. 20 and died on Sept. 23 at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Perry’s Uncle, Derek Schofield, said the seventh-grader tested positive for COVID-19 on Sept. 21, the same day she was diagnosed with Type-1 diabetes, NJ.com reported.

“This combination, along with pneumonia, caused her health to rapidly decline,” Schofield said. Perry attended the William G. Rohrer Middle School in Haddon Township.

A spokesman from Camden County said Tuesday that the medical examiner has yet to determine Perry’s official cause of death.

In a letter to district families, the Camden County Department of Health superintendent said Perry's "case continues to be an active investigation in which other pre-existing conditions could have contributed to this tragic loss of life," CBS-owned KYW-TV reported.

The South Jersey community has united to help Perry’s loved ones. A GoFundMe page launched by Nina Rippo of Collingswood, New Jersey, for the girl’s family has raised more than $4,000 of its $5,000 goal. The page states that Perry’s family needs “our help and support in processing this tragic loss.”

Before the GoFundMe page was launched, Rippo also created a Meal Train fundraiser wherein donors signed up to provide meals for the grieving family.

Perry is one of the children in New Jersey who died after testing positive for COVID-19. The first death of a child in the state was reported in May 2020. The second child death linked to the coronavirus in the state was reported in June last year, but state officials only referred to the child as a “very young individual.”

New Jersey does not publish COVID-19 trends by age, Philadelphia radio station WHYY-FM reported.

According to Schofield, his niece loved her family and friends. He also shared that Perry enjoyed trips to Ocean City and loved to visit him and aunt Kate in California.

An obituary for Perry said she was “was a gentle and happy child who was growing into a smart and confident young woman.” It further noted that visitation will be held Thursday, Sept. 30, at the St. Teresa Calcutta Parish in the morning. The funeral mass will be held at noon.

Since the pandemic started, New Jersey has reported 1,150,246 confirmed coronavirus cases and more than 27,300 deaths linked to the disease, worldometer data revealed.

As of Tuesday, the United States recorded 43,135,388 COVID-19 cases and 690,676 deaths, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.