Medical examiner report provides timeline in 17-year-old’s death due to COVID-19 complications
The office of the Miami-Dade County Medical Examiner has released its report on the death of Carsyn Davis, the 17-year-old honors student at Cypress Lake High School who passed away in Miami on June 23 from COVID-19 complications.
Davis had a complex medical history, including bronchial asthma, the report states.
According to the report’s findings:
On June 13, three days after attending a church function for children, Davis developed a frontal headache, sinus pressure and a mild cough. The family thought she had a sinus infection and she was treated with azithromycin by her parents. Her mother is a nurse and her stepfather is a physician’s assistant, according to the report.
On June 19, Carsyn’s mother supplied her with the teen’s grandfather’s home oxygen and gave her a dose of hydroxychloroquine after she looked gray while sleeping. The parents took her to Lee Health’s Gulf Coast Medical Center and she was transferred to the pediatric critical care unit at Golisano Hospital. Davis was found to be positive for SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19) on the same day she was admitted to the hospital. The parents declined intubation, the process of putting her on a ventilator. Davis received convalescent plasma therapy on June 20 and 21.
Messages left with Lee Health spokespersons were not immediately returned.
On June 22, with her condition not improving, Davis was intubated. Her cardiorespiratory status continued to decline with her oxygen levels remaining low. Her mother “requested heroic efforts despite knowing she had a low level of meaningful survival,” the report states.
Carsyn then was transferred from Golisano Hospital to the Nicklaus Children’s Hospital in Miami for extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, a type of life support measure. Other life support measures were taken but failed. Her cause of death is listed as being from complications of COVID-19 pneumonia.
Contrary to some media reports, there is no active criminal investigation by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement into the death of Davis. The Florida Department of Law Enforcement keeps track of COVID-19 deaths with records from the medical examiner’s report, according to spokesperson Jessica Cary.