Inspirational Soccer Player Loses Her Battle To Live

WARWICK, RI — The Toll Gate High girls' soccer players have lost their teammate and friend Gianna Cirella. According to news reports in the Providence Journal, WPRI-TV and WJAR 10, the 16-year-old died on Wednesday. She was the daughter of Stanley Cirella, East Greenwich's deputy police chief.

Her teammates had rallied around her as she battled what was described as a "serious illness."

A Go Fund Me page for her medical expenses describes a bit of her ordeal. The 16-year-old needed an amputation to stay alive. She suffered from a pneumonia in both lungs, a blood infection and complications. The illness started as a sore throat.

Gianna was a junior at the Warwick high school.