A Denver teen has died after battling COVID-19 for a second time, his loved ones said.
Wilber Portillo, 18, first contracted the infectious disease after he traveled with his cousin on a trip to Los Angeles, the Denverite reported.
Two months after recovering from the virus, he apparently was stricken again, developing a fever following a party where two other people tested positive for COVID-19, the outlet reported.
Portillo went to the doctor’s office on Nov. 18, where he was told he had a “really strong infection in his lungs.”
“That was the last [time] I heard from him,” Portillo’s girlfriend, Andrea Ferrel, told news station KDVR.
That night, the teen died in his sleep, the outlets reported.
“It’s a little bit difficult to know that he doesn’t exist physically anymore,” Castillo told Denverite. “He was a guy with a lot of light.”
It’s not known what caused his death, but the doctor’s office informed his family two days later that he had tested positive for the virus.
“It just took us by surprise how it happened,” Castillo said. “We will never find out what caused his death.”
Reports didn’t confirm whether Castillo — an urban farmer and budding entrepreneur — had become sick with a mutated strain of the virus.
Health experts have said reinfection is possible, but cases are rare.
Portillo’s cousin, Jamie Gomez-Gonzalez, is urging people to take the virus seriously, “no matter how young or healthy you may seem.”
“Please stay at home as much as you can,” he wrote on a GoFundMe page to cover funeral costs.