‘Empty hole in our heart.’ 4-year-old Georgia girl dies after short battle with COVID
A 4-year-old girl from Georgia died of COVID-19 one day after testing positive for the virus, according to her family.
Addison Wishart was recovering from abdominal surgery when she was diagnosed with the coronavirus and placed on a ventilator at Children’s Hospital of Georgia, according to a GoFundMe setup by her great aunt Sina Trotman.
“She was good,” Wishart’s parents told WRDW. “She was great before the surgery, and then after that she came back home and she was great for the few days she was, and then the moment she had to be rushed back, we just knew.”
Her parents suspected something was wrong when Addison started “vomiting and could not hold down any food,” according to the outlet.
Wishart was rushed back to the children’s hospital where she was placed on life support, according to her GoFundMe. She died on Sept. 4.
“It’s an empty hole in our heart, and she was amazing,” her dad Chris Wishart told WRDW. “I couldn’t have had a better daughter. She was everything I’d want in a daughter.”
Addison was in pre-kindergarten at Blue Ridge Preschool and Daycare in Evans, Georgia, according to a Sept. 5 Facebook post. The preschool described her as “the sweetest little girl.”
Now the Wishart family is warning others to get vaccinated against the coronavirus.
“It is our responsibility as adults to protect children like Addy, by getting vaccinated and masking up,” Trotman said on GoFundMe.
There are currently no coronavirus vaccines approved for children younger than 12 years old. The Pfizer vaccine is approved for those 12 to 15 years old under the Food and Drug Administration’s emergency-use authorization.
The Pfizer vaccine for those 16 years old and older was given full approval by the FDA last month, McClatchy News previously reported. Both the Johnson & Johnson and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines still await FDA approval but remain available for adults under an Emergency Use Authorization.
This story was originally published September 8, 2021 at 6:06 PM with the headline "‘Empty hole in our heart.’ 4-year-old Georgia girl dies after short battle with COVID."
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