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Two ‘healthy’ teens have died in UK after contracting coronavirus
Very sad news.
Two teenage boys who have been described as ‘healthy’ by their families have sadly passed away after contracting coronavirus.
Both Ismail Mohamed Abdulwahab, 13, and Luca Di Nicola, 19, died in London after contracting the illness, Sky News reports.
Ismail started displaying symptoms and had trouble breathing last Thursday. He was rushed to hospital, according to his family – they told the media he tested positive for COVID-19 the next day, before sadly dying on Monday at King’s College Hospital after being put on a ventilator.
Ismail is the youngest person to die from coronavirus in the UK. A family friend released a statement on their behalf: “We are beyond devastated. To our knowledge he had no underlying health conditions.”
Madinah College has set up a GoFundMe to help the family with funeral costs, writing: “It is with great sadness to announce that the younger brother of one of our teachers at Madinah College has sadly passed away this morning (Monday 30 March 2020) due to being infected with COVID-19.
“Ismail was only 13 years old without any pre-existing health conditions and sadly he died without any family members close by due to the highly infectious nature of COVID-19.”
The appeal set out to raise £4,000, but at the time of writing has raised more than £54,000 in just one day.
Luca was an assistant chef from Italy – he was taken to the North Middlesex Hospital in Enfield last Tuesday, but sadly died from apparent fulminant pneumonia just 30 minutes later.
His family described him as ‘very healthy’, with the NHS confirming he had no underlying health conditions.
Luca’s dad, Mirko, told Italian newspaper La Repubblica his son had contracted the virus, with the family receiving a British medical authority email saying a post-mortem swab confirmed it.
Dr Jenny Harries, England’s deputy chief medical officer, said young people can still be affected by coronavirus, adding: “It doesn’t matter what age you are – you should be staying at home and observing all the social distancing measures we have highlighted”.
