A 13-year-old girl in US state of Georgia died of undiagnosed leukemia just hours after complaining of a headache, according to a report in The Augusta Chronicle. Julia Chavez's mother Jenna Randall told the outlet that she had a headache and an earache over the weekend, which the local doctors diagnosed as infection. The Augusta girl was prescribed antibiotics, but collapsed on Sunday morning. She was rushed to Doctors Hospital in Augusta blood test and CT scan revealed she had internal bleeding caused by leukemia.
"She had bleeding in her brain, lungs, stomach... everywhere," her father, Dennis Lee Chavez, wrote on Facebook.
"That's where we found out she had leukemia. It came on so hard and so fast. Doctors told us there was no way we could have known," Mr Chavez further said in the post.
Julia was a student at Harlem Middle School in Columbia County. Her teachers called the teenager the "kindest, most big-hearted child I think I've ever met".
Devastated by the girl's sudden death, her grandfather Ernie Randall told The Augusta Chronicle, "My granddaughter was the best little girl. God says that nobody is perfect, but I'd put a test to that one by her being perfect."
Julia's mother said she was never hospitalised for anything since she was born. "We never knew she had it (leukemia). She was a bubbly, bright, beautiful girl. She never had more than a sniffle and she's never been hospitalised for anything since she was born."
Harlem Middle School announced counselling will be available for students following the death of Julia Chavez.
