14-year-old Brazilian swimmer Mariana Franklin Ferreira Silva died last Saturday, December 19, due to complications from COVID-19, despite being cleared to compete just over a week earlier.
Franklin Ferreira Silva initially tested positive for the virus in November, and according to her aunt, didn’t have many symptoms.
Nadadora de 14 anos morre por complicações da Covid-19
Mariana Franklin Ferreira Silva chegou a competir nos dias 9 e 10 deste mês https://t.co/h44ymH3ZAm pic.twitter.com/OXZ89IUa8t
— ge (@geglobo) December 20, 2020
After receiving her release from hospital, Franklin Ferreira Silva was cleared to resume training with her swim team, APAN Presidente Prudente in Sao Paulo, and went on to compete at the National Integration Tournament in Santos December 9-10 (the same meet Brandonn Almeida competed at). Franklin Ferreira Silva raced the 50, 100 and 200 freestyle.
Upon return to her hometown of President Prudente, she developed a sore throat, so she went to the hospital on December 13 where it was learned she had a lung infection. According to the Regional Hospital of Presidente Prudente, she was medicated and released on the same day, only to return December 17 with more severe respiratory symptoms. She died two days later.
“Mariana fulfilled her duty here on earth, brought us joy, made dreams come true,” said her aunt, Érica Bernardes da Silva, translated from Portuguese. “What this lesson fails to do is that we have to be very careful with COVID-19. It is a disease that kills very quickly. Healthcare professionals need to pay more attention when dealing with any related symptoms, we have to protect ourselves. Everyone has to do their part.”
Bernardes de Silva added that Franklin Ferreira Silva was hoping to compete at the Paulista Championships in Bauru, December 16-19. “Her bag is still at home, ready. She believed she could recover. She really wanted to (compete at) Paulistão.”
let me sum it up:
the virus is a liberal hoax
it will go away
it will disappear after November 2nd
you can kill it if you inject bleach in your body
the vaccine will come with Bill Gate’s chip who invented the virus
no proof this girl died because of covid because of all of the above.
Absolutely tragic. My heart goes out to her family and friends.
Though this might be an unique case, and details about how she got the lung infection seem unclear, hopefully it can be learned from and more research can be done regarding the lung infection’s potential connection to COVID and exercise (potential repercussions of COVID).
Also, this is yet another reminder to be careful about the virus. Until a vaccine hopefully arrives, we must all do our best to keep ourselves and everyone safe.
Sorry to hear this, truly, but I guess I’ll be the bad one to ask this…
…where exactly is the definitive link between the covid diagnosis and the cause of death in this case?
Tests positive for a virus that attacks the lungs, gets a lung infection not much later…
While this article doesn’t prove the link between the two, it is highly unlikely that the infection isn’t related to the prior positive test. I am sure it can be determined officially, and I am sure it could be proven from another article about this case on another site. For now, until proven otherwise, I am going to assume what is significantly more likely: the infection is a result of the virus.
RIP, this breaks my heart 🙁
This article writes as if it’s definitive. And yet the only “proof” is an asymptomatic test and an aunt who apparently has a problem with the local doctors (with I’m sure good reason given the emotion of losing a niece). While there’s certainly a possibility, a month+ later lung infection could be developed by a myriad of different non-covid related issues. That’s not “highly unlikely” without knowing A LOT more about the background and medical records (neither of which I’m asking for here). It could easily be argued via stats/probabilities that non-covid related issues (because…those are actually still a thing) is the “highly likely” side of the considerations.
This is the issue here. We see it with the UF basketball… Read more »
@DrSwimPhil: She tested positive for COVID “in November” and had “light symptoms”, according to the article. So she was not asymptomatic as you state. Doctors thought it was nevertheless safe for her to swim at the meet, and immediately after her health deteriorated, and then she died from a respiratory infection. If she had other underlying conditions, why did the doctors let her swim? As usual, COVID deniers will deny because that’s what they do.
Continue throwing out “covid deniers” as a way to end a discussion that has multiple nuances doesn’t help any forward movement throughout this situation. At no point did I “deny” covid. I acknowledge it’s here. But we have to consider all avenues and nuances of health, especially before deciding to write a declarative article such as this. The “denier” is the author of this article, relative to the science that needs to be understood prior.
The consequences of exertional and potentially hypoxic exercise on those with resolving COVID-19 is not fully known. The UF Basketball player likely had an arrhythmic arrest, maybe as a cryptic consequence of COVID-related cardiomyopathy. His collapse on TV was a grisly spectacle for sure. This poor Brazilian swimmer had several weeks of asymptomatic COVID-19 before returning to the pool. Although we are not clear as to if or when she tested negative, we can assume she died of Severe Covid Pneumonia (SCP). It is rare to develop SCP after day 10-14 from index diagnosis, but there are feasible mechanisms whereby exercise could exacerbate COVID. Hypoxia, especially, causes induction the HIF-1-alpha, which in turn induces the sheddase ADAM17. ADAM17, previously known… Read more »
Aye.
Plus I’ll wait for the parent statement . This is like the article from earlier this year whereby a 13 yr old Ca swimmer ‘ died from.Covid’ , posted on a sister’s facebook. I looked for weeks but no 13 year old appeared on official lists.
I went back to the pool this weekend only 14 days after my positive test, I was asymptomatic. I will take it easy.
“we can assume she died of Severe Covid Pneumonia (SCP).”
How can we assume that?
I assume you read the linked article where it states she was diagnosed at three different hospitals with tonsillitis? The fourth hospital did a CT scan and found an infection in the lung. Might there be other issues at play, tough to tell from thousands of miles away?
The “infection in lung” on CT is likely SCP. This is what we are seeing in my Hospital Covid ICU at UCSF. Of course there may be other issues at play. It is possible, but less likely that it was a bacterial superinfection, which would be unlikely to kill a young healthy person. Similarly tonsillitis should not have killed her. Overall, I think it a rare situation (as others have commented) and it is a definite bummer. That I can certainly surmise from thousands of miles away.
Agree that’s tragic and an unusual case.
As you’re in the Bay Area, where swimming is pretty popular, though greatly limited at the moment, would you let your kids compete at swimming if the proper protocols were in place?
Despite not knowing the details, this sounds like a case of MIS-C.
That’s fair, and I appreciate the actual attempt to discuss this scientifically. Keep in mind, the situation in this article and the UF bball player (whether they’re inter-related or not) are “rare” as well.
I agree, 10 year ban on anyone with the Virus from doing anything strenuous.
10??? That’s a bit much
I had coronavirus and I have a congenital heart defect and I would agree a ban on doing anything too strenuous would be good. But 10 years is too long. I’m from Oregon and I had coronavirus in the beginning, around the end of March. I had a few complications but now I am able to swim mostly normally again. I would say that 6-12 months would be a more appropriate amount of time.
So sad, this could have been prevented. Rip
Very sad and could happen anywhere. Please be cautious for yourself, your kids and for others. Erring on the side of caution is better than something like this happening.
#Crazyaboutswim
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Tried to reply, but it’s still apparently awaiting approval. . . .
Trying again to post, though without the link to an NPR story on teen mental health and suicides resulting from the lockdowns.
Yes it certainly is very tragic that someone so young passed. Clearly, she loved swimming as did the 13 year old boy who died in So Cal after experiencing Covid like symptoms in July. Turns out, he had multiple heart conditions that led to his premature death. Also tragic, indeed.
“Erring on the side of caution is better than something like this happening”
Perhaps, but the causal link in this case remains unclear. Importantly, it appears that the girl was a swimmer who may have died from complications from Covid. Nowhere is there a suggestion that she… Read more »