Galveston’s youngest COVID death
HOUSTON — Kali Cook was running around her home Monday, gleefully batting the fake red eyelashes her grandmother had given her for Labor Day. By 2 a.m., she had a fever. By morning, she was gone.
The 4-year old died of COVID-19 in her sleep Tuesday at 7 a.m., her mother Karra Harwood said.
“It took her so fast,” Harwood said.
The preschooler, a student at Bacliff’s Kenneth E. Little Elementary School, is the first child younger than 10 to die of COVID-19 in Galveston County. Health officials confirmed the death Thursday.
Her sudden death highlights the perils of the latest delta surge, which has sickened young children at alarming rates as they return to school. As of Wednesday, 321 children with COVID-19 were hospitalized statewide, two
of them in the Galveston area.
Kali never made it to the hospital.
She died the day after her mother tested positive for the virus. By then, her brother and 5month-old sister were infected too.
Now the family is quarantining in the home where Kali died.
They can’t escape the memory of the curly-haired girl who idolized her siblings and hated having her hair combed, Harwood said.
“I always tried to put bows in her hair, but Kali wanted to be outside catching frogs,” she said.
The 4-year old started preschool last month. She cried at first, realizing she would have to leave her mom behind, but she quickly grew to like it, telling her mom, “I can’t wait to go to school.”
It is unclear where the family first contracted the virus. In a statement, Galveston County health officials said they do not believe Kali contracted the virus in her classroom, where “face coverings are strongly recommended,” according to school policy.
“We don’t know where it came from,” Harwood said.
Harwood, who is out of work while quarantining, started a fundraiser to help pay for Kali’s funeral and the family’s medical bills. As of Friday, friends and strangers already had donated more than $16,000.
She is haunted by her daughter’s swift sickness, and worried her 5-month-old will be next.
“Kali was perfectly fine, and then she was gone,” Harwood said.