the saddest tale

You hear about things like this all the time - usually they are forwarded in a chain email and you almost always delete them, or you check them out on snopes.com to see if it is an urban legend or a hoax of some kind - like the missing kid and Disney's daughter giving you $10 for every email you forward, but folks, THIS is real! This is someone I know and have touched and was a part of my life....I am just going to post her mom's email.......

2009 has become the worst year of my life. My 17 year old daughter, Jessica, passed away last weekend. She just turned 17 on thursday the 15th. Her dad came down for her birthday and she got a cold. Friday she had a stuffy nose. Saturday she had a sore throat. Sunday she slept alot and by Sunday night she started coughing up blood. I raced her to the ER where they determined she had strep and pneumonia. Her breathing was getting worse and her oxygen saturation was in the 80's so they were going to put her on a ventilator to help when her heart stopped. It took them 35 minutes to get it started again and she was then Lifeflighted to Houston.

She never regained consciousness and passed away just after midnight. None of it makes
any sense to me. How can a healthy young teen die from strep and pneumonia. Now the doctors are telling me that there is some new virulent form of strep that attacks the whole body and kills within 24 hours. She is the second person out of 5 in this area to die from it in the past 2 weeks.

I am on medication, but I don't know how I'm going to survive this. If it weren't for my babies and my son, I know I wouldn't be here right now. Today is the first day I have been back home and seeing her everywhere in the house is too much for me. I'm trying to get through hour by hour, but I haven't slept or eaten in a week. My babies are with their dad for now, my son went back to work today. I just cry.

Hug your kids, your grandkids, tell them you love them every chance you get. I didn't get the chance to tell Jessica I loved her one last time before her heart stopped, it happened so suddenly. If your child or grandchild complains of a sore throat, take them to the doctor immediately. Both hospitals don't know if this is a new form of antibiotic resistant strep, but apparently it's new enough they are worried. Please pray for my family and for my Jessiey in heaven.

I hope you can't imagine....and if you have lost a child, my heart is broken for you....Jessica also had type 1 diabetes, but apparently the diabetes has nothing to do with her death. I met her when she was about 10 years old....she was an incredible little kid and I ache for her mom and family! So sad.......