CLAREMONT (CBSLA) – A Claremont family was grieving on Friday after the death of a 13-year-old boy who had been isolated in his room after experiencing the symptoms of COVID-19.
Maxx Cheng, 13, died Thursday night while isolated in his room after experiencing COVID-like symptoms. (Cheng’s family photo)
And while it was still unclear what caused Maxx Cheng’s death, many are concerned that a healthy young boy may be one of the latest victims of the coronavirus pandemic.
“I had this dream of wanting to go to the Olympics,” said Charlotte Cheng, Maxx’s sister.
Quarantined inside his home, Cheng said his younger brother started feeling ill on the fourth of July.
“Nausea, vomiting, chest pain,” he said. “That list that appears, a little bit, in that initial search, had all those symptoms.”
On July 9, Maxx’s mother took him to get tested for COVID-19. That test was negative.
“His symptoms matched, but then the test came back negative,” said Cheng. “So we were a little confused.”
Despite the test result, Maxx continued to isolate himself in his room due to his continuing symptoms.
“We went to see him, as we normally do,” Cheng said. “I wasn’t responding. We found him passed out in the room.
Maxx died Thursday night after days of apparent improvement over the past week.
Maxx Cheng, left in this undated family photo, was tested for COVID-19 shortly after experiencing symptoms, although the test came back negative. (Cheng’s family photo)
“There was almost no cough,” said Cheng. “The fever had dropped three days before his death.”
In Los Angeles County, only 7% of confirmed COVID cases involve children, another reason why Maxx’s possible COVID-related death was troubling.
“Someone who is athletic, someone who is on the swim team who is so energetic and active dies because of that, it changes the conversation,” said Nichole Weinstein, a family friend.
Weinstein’s daughter was in Maxx’s class. She and some other moms who know the Cheng family have started a GoFundMe page to help them.
“I felt that the risk that they didn’t have some kind of peer group and that they didn’t have socialization was greater than the risk of the disease,” Weinstein said. “But now I feel a little different.”
The Cheng family said they had been very careful, even before Maxx became ill, so they did not know where he could have contracted the disease.
An autopsy report is expected to determine Maxx’s cause of death, and if he had COVID-19, in the coming days.
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