In Florida, teenager dies of 'kissing disease'

After a stroke, a teenager died due to mononucleosis, also known as the “kissing disease”. It happened in Florida, writes Daily Mail.

Photo: Go fund me

17-year-old Ariana Ray Delfs from Fernandin Beach for three weeks felt a sore throat and a constant headache. Parents of the girl suggested that the child has a common cold or flu.

They took her to a doctor who conducted several tests, including mononucleosis (abbreviated as mono), but could not find out what was the matter.

When Ariana started vomiting constantly, she was sent to the hospital. There she suffered a stroke after complaining that she did not feel her legs.

The girl was urgently sent to another hospital, where she was finally diagnosed with the Epstein-Barr virus, which causes mono.

However, it was already too late. A stroke caused by mono left Ariana with irreparable brain damage, and she died three days later.

Ariana, one of three children in the family. She is described as a self-taught musician and sports scientist.

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Her father, Mark Delfs, said that when her daughter felt the first signs of the disease in the form of a headache, she did not worry too much.

It was checked for several viruses, including mono, but not one was confirmed.

One evening, the girl began incessant vomiting. Her parents began to be “very nervous," so they were taken to the hospital the next morning. But the condition only worsened.

At the hospital, Ariana tried to get up to go to the bathroom, but told her parents that she did not feel her legs.

“She felt that her legs simply refused,” her father said.

Doctors suggested that the patient suffered a stroke and took her to a hospital in Jacksonville, which is 35 miles (56,3 km).

“From time to time, her words were very slurred,” Delfs said.

“She just spoke gibberish, and the loss began at that moment, which we simply did not know about,” he added.

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At Jacksonville Hospital, doctors learned that Ariana had the Epstein-Barr virus, which causes mono. It is transmitted through saliva. This means that someone can become infected by kissing someone who has this virus, or through food if an infected person has tasted it. You can also get infected by airborne droplets during coughing or sneezing.

Symptoms usually appear four to six weeks after infection. Among them are sore throat, fever, fatigue, swollen tonsils and headache.

The virus rarely causes death.

Doctors told the Delphi family that Ariana suffered irreversible brain damage due to her stroke.

“Her brain was so swollen that it could not function,” her father said.

He hopes his daughter’s story will encourage parents to take care of their child’s health with the first symptoms.

“In our case, this was not enough, but in others it could save their lives,” Delfs said.

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