A Maryland family is mourning the tragic loss of a ten-year-old girl who they describe as the family’s light. Minka Aisha Greene was an otherwise healthy and active student. So when her mother, Kymesha Greene White, noticed her low energy and lack of appetite around the end of January, she said she grew concerned about her daughter.
“We noticed her behavior changed because she normally doesn’t get sick. This was like her first time getting sick,” White told DC News Now.
White says she took her daughter to the hospital, where doctors diagnosed her with the flu. Minka, who had not received the flu vaccine this year, was sent home and told to take ibuprofen and rest. But when she continued to complain of headaches, Minka’s parents took her back to the emergency room, where doctors gave her fluids and again, sent her home to rest.
Then, on the morning of February 6, Minka’s mother was horrified to find her daughter in bed vomiting. As she tried to bathe her, White said Minka told her she couldn’t feel her legs.
Minka’s mother told the Capitol Heights Daily Voice that her condition seemed to be getting worse on the way to the hospital, as one of her eyes rolled back in her head and her tongue fluttered uncontrollably. By the time they got to the hospital, Minka had stopped breathing and was unable to be revived. According to the Daily Mail, her symptoms were the result of “severe brain inflammation caused by the flu.”
“That was the last time I carried her, the last time I held her in my arms. I will cherish that for the rest of my life,” Minka’s father, David White, told DC News Now.
Kymesha Greene White hopes her family’s tragedy will encourage other parents to advocate for their children in the hospital and doctor’s office.
“Get your child checked out,” she told Fox 5 DC. “Don’t stop just because the doctors say it’s just the flu.”