Woman dies after 'kissing disease' is confused as stroke
A teenage girl has died after she was diagnosed with mononucleosis, also known as the ‘kissing disease’, leaving her family devastated.
Ariana Rae Delfs, 17, from the US state Florida, died after falling ill about three weeks ago.
The 17-year-old’s father Mark Delfs, told Fox News that in the weeks leading up to his daughter’s death, she experienced cold-like symptoms and constant headaches.
“The persistent thing all the way through was the headache,” he said
After visiting doctors and undergoing several tests, including one for mononucleosis, Ariana was sent home without a diagnosis.
Her parents told CBS one evening Ariana started throwing up throughout the night constantly, so they took her to the hospital where her conditioned deteriorated rapidly.
“She got up to go to the bathroom, all of a sudden she couldn’t feel part of her legs, and she felt like her legs were just giving out,” Mr Delfs said.
When her speech started the slur, the doctors suspected she was having a stroke and flew her to another hospital in Jacksonville.
“Her words were very slurred at times. She was just talking gibberish, and the damage was already beginning at that point,” her dad told CBS.
It wasn’t until the final days of her life that Ariana received a diagnosis of Epstein-Barr virus which causes mononucleosis.
“Her brain swelled to the point where it couldn’t function and brain damage did occur,” Ariana’s father told WJAX-TV.
“And we just made the decision that it was time to let her go.”
Ariana’s father has started a GoFundMe page to fund a legacy program in her name.
“Ariana was a gifted self-taught musician, artist and scholar-athlete attending Fernandina Beach High School in Florida,” the page reads
At the time of publication more than $17,000 had been raised to fund programs that the teenager was involved in.
”This legacy fund will be used to help fund some of her passions, including a music and arts programs for children, helping animals and making the world a better place,” the page says.
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