A teenager who tested positive for the coronavirus died after he was turned away from an urgent care center because he did not have health insurance.

The unidentified 17-year-old boy passed away in Lancaster, California, reported NBC News. R. Rex Parris, mayor of Lancaster, announced the teen’s death in a video posted on the city’s YouTube channel.

"The Friday before he died, he was healthy. He was socializing with his friends," Parris said. "By Wednesday, he was dead."

The boy arrived at an urgent care center on March 18 after he was sick for a few days according to NBC News. When the staff realized he did not have health insurance, they recommended he go to a public hospital instead.

He went into cardiac arrest on the way to the hospital.

"We've learned that once you go into respiratory issues, you have trouble breathing, you're short of breath and you have a fever, that is the time to get medical treatment without delay," Parris explained.

The hospital was able to keep the teenager alive for a few hours, but he eventually died from septic shock. He tested positive for COVID-19 after his death.

“We're the first city in the nation to lose a child and that is unbearable to me,” Parris said.

The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health initially blamed the pandemic for the teen’s death but later indicated something else might have contributed to his demise.

“The juvenile fatality that the Los Angeles County Department Public Health reported earlier today will require further evaluation by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,” the department said in a statement. “Though early tests indicated a positive result for COVID-19, the case is complex and there may be an alternate explanation for this fatality. Patient privacy prevents our offering further details at this time.”

The boy’s father and several other members of his family tested positive for the virus. He might have exposed one of his friends to it, according to The Daily Mail. Melissa Derose’s daughter, Hailey, was friends with the boy. She was shocked when she heard about his death.

“The last day of school was Friday 13 and he seemed absolutely fine, so to learn on Wednesday that he had died was just shocking,” she told the outlet.

After a conversation with her daughter, Derose had her family tested as soon as possible. As a bone cancer survivor, the mom is considered particularly vulnerable to the disease.

“I asked Hailey about her last contact with him. She sat directly across from him in one of her classes and it had been raining that last day of school,” she recalled. “He had taken Hailey’s jacket and put it on an empty chair for her and he picked it up and gave it to her when class was over.”

Derose and her other daughter tested negative, but her husband and Hailey tested positive. She criticized public health officials for not keeping her informed.

“Even if they hadn’t had his test results they had my daughter’s by Sunday 22 and they said nothing,” she said. “It only became public knowledge when they announced his death.”

Lancaster-California

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