he family of a 17-year-old Florida girl who died last month from COVID-19 treated her symptoms at home for nearly a week before taking her to a hospital, a medical examiner's report concludes.
The home care included giving the girl unproven drugs and putting her on an oxygen tank used by her grandfather.
Carsyn Leigh Davis died June 23 as Lee County's youngest victim of the novel coronavirus. Nearly two weeks before her death she had attended a 100-person church function and, according to the Miami-Dade Medical Examiner's Office, "She did not wear a mask. Social distancing was not followed."
The News-Press could not independently verify which church was involved and a call to the possible host of the event was not returned Monday. A reporter also tried to reach the girl's mother without success on Monday.
The girl had struggled with a number of health issues over the years, including a rare nervous-system disorder that resolved when she was 5, obesity and an auto-immune disorder, the report states.
Her mother, a nurse, and a man identified in the report as her father, a physician assistant, gave the girl azithromycin — an antibiotic being studied as a potential COVID-19 treatment — as a protective measure, the report states.
But on June 13, the girl developed a frontal headache, sinus pressure, and mild cough. The family assumed they were the result of a sinus infection, the report states.
On June 19, the girl's mother noticed that she looked "gray" while sleeping. The girl was then given an unspecified dose of hydroxychloroquine — an arthritis and lupus drug some, including President Donald J. Trump, have touted as a possible treatment for COVID-19.