Sarah Strate, 17, passed away suddenly on Monday. Her family suspects COVID-19, but they could wait months for the medical examiner to finish investigating.
Sarah Strate — a healthy, active Grade 12 student at Magrath High School who loved singing, dancing and being outdoors — died on Monday, less than a week after being notified she'd been exposed to COVID-19.
While two tests came back negative, her parents say other signs point to the coronavirus, and they're waiting for more answers.
"It was so fast. It's all still such a shock," said Sarah's mother, Kristine Strate. "She never even coughed. She had a sore throat and her ears were sore for a while, and [she had] swollen neck glands."
Kristine said Sarah developed mild symptoms shortly after her older sister — who later tested positive for COVID-19 — visited from Lethbridge, one of Alberta's current hot spots for the virus.
The family went into isolation at their home in Magrath on Tuesday, April 20. They were swabbed the next day and the results were negative.
By Friday night, Sarah had developed fever and chills. On Saturday, she started vomiting and Kristine, a public health nurse, tried to keep her hydrated.
"She woke up feeling a bit more off on Monday morning," Kristine said. "And everything went south, super-fast."
Sarah had grown very weak and her parents decided to call 911 when she appeared to become delirious.
"She had her blanket on and I was talking to her and, in an instant, she was unresponsive," said Kristine, who immediately started performing CPR on her daughter.
When paramedics arrived 20 minutes later, they were able to restore a heartbeat and rushed Sarah to hospital in Lethbridge, where she died.
At the hospital, the family was told Sarah's lungs were severely infected and that she may have ended up with blood clots in both her heart and lungs, a condition that can be a complication of COVID-19.
But a second test at the hospital came back negative for COVID-19.
"There really is no other answer," Ron said. "When a healthy 17-year-old girl, who was sitting up in her bed and was able to talk, and within 10 minutes is unconscious on our floor — there was no reason [for it]."
The province currently has no record of any Albertans under the age of 20 who have died of COVID-19.
According to the Strate family, the medical examiner is running additional blood and tissue tests, in an effort to uncover the cause of Sarah's death.
