A local coroner says the 22-year-old woman listed as the youngest person to die of COVID-19 in Georgia may not have been killed by the disease.
Muscogee County Coroner Buddy Bryan said it is more likely that a pulmonary embolism after childbirth caused the woman’s death, according to the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer.
The woman was listed in the Georgia Department of Public Health’s report on Saturday as having an underlying health condition.
Bryan said the woman tested positive for COVID-19 the same day she had an emergency Cesarean section and gave birth to a baby girl, the Ledger-Enquirer reported. She was taken to a hospital twice before giving birth and was sent home after delivering, Bryan said.
“She had a couple of (coronavirus) symptoms during that period of time,” Byran told the Ledger-Enquirer. “She had a cough and a fever.”
She died at her home April 10, he said. The woman’s mother found her unconscious on the floor of a bedroom.
Bryan said when he arrived at the home to pronounce her dead, there were signs she might have had a pulmonary embolism, which is a blockage of one of the pulmonary arteries by a blood clot that forms in the body and travels to the lung.
The coroner said the woman’s C-section might have caused the blood clot. He believes that and other complications from the surgery caused her death.
“Someone jumped the gun on this,” Bryan said. “I’d bet my house and all the money I have in the bank that the girl didn’t die from coronavirus. ...I don’t believe the cause of death is going to be the coronavirus. Now, they might list it as second and third. But the main cause of death is going to be different. I promise you.”
Bryan sent the woman’s body to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation Crime Lab Saturday to officially determine the cause of her death, the Ledger-Enquirer reported.
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