Bolingbrook Girl, 15, Dies 2 Days After COVID-19 Diagnosis

BOLINGBROOK, IL — Dykota Morgan, a 15-year-old basketball star and stellar student, was set to wrap up her freshman year at Bolingbrook High School on a high note after returning to school following the coronavirus shutdown.

Morgan developed a headache Saturday, May 1. By Sunday evening, Dykota had tested positive for coronavirus. By Tuesday morning, the bright, bubbly teen was dead.

“It’s just unexplainable, the pain," Dykota's mother, Krystal Morgan, told Patch Friday. She said her family is searching for answers after the sudden loss of Dykota, whom she described as a "perfectly healthy athlete.”

Krystal said she took Dykota for a rapid coronavirus test after the teen began coughing and developed a low-grade fever. After the test came back positive, Dykota attended school via Zoom the following morning. Around 4 p.m. that Monday, Dykota began to have chills, but she did not develop a fever. As the hours passed, her condition worsened, and she became too weak to lift her arms, which prompted Krystal to call a doctor.

Around 9 p.m. Monday, Krystal and Dykota's father, Rashad Bingham, took her to Central DuPage Hospital, where they were initially told she might be experiencing dehydration. Then, her blood pressure began dropping "by the hour," Krystal said.

“She just started deteriorating so rapidly and the doctors were just stunned," Krystal said.

Krystal said doctors made phone calls to different hospitals and specialists as Dykota's heart —and then her kidneys— began to fail.

Efforts to secure a helicopter to Lurie Children's Hospital were thwarted by inclement weather, but a vehicle was en route to drive Dykota to Lurie.

At 2:05 a.m., just hours after arriving at the hospital, Dykota "coded," Krystal told Patch. She added, "She was lucid and talking right until she coded.”

Krystal said doctors worked for an hour to try to revive the teen, but "every time they stopped doing CPR her heart rate just went right back down."

Dykota was pronounced dead just after 3 a.m. Krystal said the DuPage County Coroner's Office told her Dykota's death was due to an "inflamed heart."

In the wake of losing Dykota, Krystal is urging parents to take coronavirus seriously.

“I really just don’t want any other parents to go through this," she said. “People need to know that their kids need to get vaccinated. It’s important.”

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Dykota's all too short life left its impact on friends, teachers, coaches and strangers, who have been reaching out to the family to share dedications in the teen's memory, Krystal told Patch. A GoFundMe account has been started to help aid Dykota's family.

Dykota is survived by her mother, Krystal Morgan, her father, Rashad Bingham, and her sisters, Dyman Jenkins, 19, and Layla Bingham, 5. Her sisters “are grieving so bad it’s not even funny," Krystal told Patch.

"She left a piece of herself with everyone she came into contact with," Krystal told Patch. "I'm just so proud to have raised this beautiful young lady.”

In the days since Dykota's death, her family has been sorting through her things, finding sadness, laughter and inspiration among the little pieces that made up the teen's day-to-day life.

With Dykota gone, Krystal will have to care for her geckos, Ozzy and Little Ozzy. Krystal said Dykota had begged for the geckos, saying, "I just want something that’s mine, so that I could love it."

"She got to be a parent to those babies," Krystal said. What hung on the air after that remained unspoken amid a future unfulfilled...amid a life cut short.

Krystal told Patch she was particularly moved by something she found amid Dykota's possessions. Written in bright, cheery marker is a list of Dykota's own personal affirmations.

When Patch asked Krystal what Dykota would want people to take away from her brief time on this earth, she did not hesitate in saying it would be the words the teen wrote on this list: