A Henrico County preschooler has died from a strep infection, preliminary reports suggest.
Kingston Shunming Ponce, son of Neil and Henny Ponce, died Saturday morning, several days after he first started feeling ill, said Jennifer Evans, an aunt of the 4-year-old boy.
"He just wasn't feeling well and had a fever," Evans said. "His fever got pretty high on Thursday, so his mom called the pediatrician. Friday, his mom took him to the doctor. The doctor checked him out, ran some tests and sent him home. … Saturday morning, he was still ill," Evans said.
Evans said Kingston was at home when he lost consciousness.
"They called 911. His father performed CPR until the paramedics got there," Evans said. He was taken to St. Mary's Hospital, where doctors tried to revive him, she said.
"He was a happy, silly, playful, full-of-life little boy."
A funeral Mass is 10 a.m. today, Thursday, at St. Michael Catholic Church, 4491 Springfield Road in Henrico.
On Tuesday, county health officials sent a letter to parents whose children attend Kids in Discovery Preschool in western Henrico to alert them to possible signs of invasive strep infections.
Without giving the child's name, Dr. William Nelson, acting director of the Henrico Health District, indicates that a child at the preschool recently died from what appears to be a strep infection.
The cause of death is provisional until the medical examiner gives a cause of death, Nelson said Wednesday.
Kids in Discovery Preschool is in Discovery United Methodist Church at 13000 Gayton Road.
No other cases have been connected to the one, Nelson said.
"It's not extremely transmissible," he said. "Group A strep is the same strep that causes strep throat. So it is fairly common bacteria. There are hundreds of thousands of cases of superficial strep infections in the country every year, but only about 10,000 instances where it becomes invasive, which means it gets into a place in the body that is normally sterile and where it should not be."
Most strep infections, however, are relatively mild illnesses such as strep throat, or impetigo, a skin disease that causes blisters.
Signs of severe strep infection include fever, throat pain, red or swollen tonsils, headache, rash, stomachache and listlessness.
Treatment is with antibiotics.
Evans said a memorial fund has been set up for Kingston. Donations can be made at www.gofundme.com/fe5dc.
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