Teen dies of COVID within a week, Illinois family says. ‘Doesn’t discriminate on age’

Arnold Herrera had just asked his teachers for a job reference to become an auto mechanic, an Illinois school says.

The 19-year-old landed a job as a skilled technician after graduating and now he was applying to be an apprentice at mechanic’s union, according to Benito Juarez Community Academy in Chicago. He was also a cadet in the Junior ROTC program at the high school.

“Arnold loved to play the guitar and he loved to work with his hands and found his passion as an automotive technician,” the school says.

Then tragedy struck — suddenly.

He was diagnosed with COVID-19 last week and his condition quickly worsened, his brother Pablo Portilla told WLS. By Sunday, his family says a young man who was healthy with no underlying conditions had died, the news outlet reported.

“I kept on praying that he was going to be better because I knew he was always, you know, strong,” Portilla told WLS. “It wasn’t in God’s plan.”

According to the Cook County Medical Examiner, he died of acute respiratory failure and pneumonia from COVID-19.

“It doesn’t discriminate on age. It just happens. And we should all be careful. We shouldn’t think, ‘Oh yeah because I’m young, it’s not going to happen to me,’” Portilla told WLS.

Arnold is the second teen in the Chicago area to die of the coronavirus in a week. Sarah Simental, an 18-year-old from Tinley Park, died a day after Christmas, McClatchy News reported. Her family told news outlets that she too was previously healthy.

“I’m still in shock and disbelief. I lost my best friend my dear brother. He was always a joy every day even when tired from work,” Portilla posted on Facebook. “His passion was his job and his hobby, always leaving the best of him everywhere he went.”