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\"My mom collapsed,\" Madeline Pena said.

\"I didn't give myself time to process,\" she said, acknowledging she was in the \"bargaining\" stage of grief for awhile.

\"She didn't even get to have a prom,\" she said. \"Or walk down the aisle to get her diploma.\"

\"PHOTO:
Pena family
PHOTO: An undated photo of Yazy Pena, who died in April at age 18.
>

\"When you're with someone for so long, it's hard to believe that they're gone,\" she said.

As the pandemic rages on, Madeline Pena said, \"you can believe that it's not gonna get to you ... but it'll sneak up on you. And it will not ask your name, your age, where you're from, your privileges.\"

\"You can have everything you ever wanted and a random virus takes it from you.\"

'She was frightened beyond belief'

More than 1,700 miles away, Adeline Fagan, a 28-year-old doctor, was battling COVID-19 for two months before she died on Sept. 19.

\"She always wanted to be a doctor ever since she was little,\" her father, Brant Fagan, told ABC News. \"She ran around with her little Fisher-Price stethoscope on.\"

The precocious child's career choice was cemented at 10 years old when she suffered reflex sympathetic dystrophy, a neuro-inflammatory disorder, and her doctor talked to her \"as if she was an adult,\" her father said.

\"Ever since then she wanted to be a doctor so she could help people and teach people like she was taught by that doctor,\" he said, overcome with emotion.

\"PHOTO:
Courtesy Fagan Family
PHOTO: Dr. Adeline Fagan, 28, who died on Sept. 19, 2020, is seen in this undated family photo.
>

Adeline pushed through the neurological disease with intense physical therapy. The upstate New York native excelled through high school and college, and in 2019, she graduated from the University at Buffalo School of Medicine.

\"She learned hard work and dedication from her family,\" Dr. Dori R. Marshall, associate dean and director of medical admissions and assistant professor of psychiatry, said in a statement. \"Her father would routinely drop everything to come for a weekend, or a week, and sit side-by-side with Adeline as she prepared for an exam.\"

Adeline chose obstetrics and gynecology as her specialty and last year she moved to Houston to begin her residency.

When the pandemic erupted, Adeline was especially nervous due to her history of upper respiratory infections, including pneumonia and bronchitis, said her mother, Mary Jane Fagan.

On July 1, Adeline started a rotation in the chaotic emergency department at HCA Houston Healthcare West. Just seven days later, she tested positive for COVID-19, her parents said.

\"PHOTO:
Courtesy Fagan Family
PHOTO: Dr. Adeline Fagan, 28, who died on Sept. 19, 2020, is seen in this undated family photo.
>

Adeline quarantined at home as her symptoms intensified. On July 14, she was admitted to the hospital where she worked.

\"She was frightened beyond belief,\" her mother said.

\"We were losing her to this disease,\" she said. \"She was getting whiter and whiter and weaker and weaker.\"

The Fagans jumped in their car and drove from upstate New York to Houston.

\"We told her we are staying here until we brought her home to rehab. We were never going to leave,\" Mary Jane Fagan said.

On July 29, when Adeline was transferred to a Level 1 trauma center, her parents were by her side as she was placed in the ambulance.

\"Foolish as this sounds [due to Adeline being contagious,] but in retrospect I am very happy we did this ... we went up and we gave her a hug,\" her mother said. \"That was the last time we actually saw her looking like Adeline Fagan.\"

We are deeply saddened to hear about the recent passing of Adeline Fagan, MD '19, a recent graduate who was just beginning her second year of residency in obstetrics and gynecology in Houston, TX. pic.twitter.com/thK8UxXClP

— Jacobs School at University at Buffalo (@Jacobs_Med_UB) September 21, 2020

Within days, her oxygen levels plummeted. Adeline was put on a ventilator and on extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), a specialized form of life support.

By mid-September, Adeline was no longer COVID-19 positive and seemed to be improving, and her parents were allowed to visit.

\"She looked awful. Machines everywhere keeping her alive,\" her mother said.

\"She wasn't super coherent,\" Mary Jane Fagan said, but Adeline managed to open her eyes and kiss her mother.

On Sept. 18, Adeline suffered a massive brain hemorrhage. She died the next day.

\"You're in a state of shock,\" Mary Jane Fagan said. \"How did our child get to this point?\"

To young Americans, the grieving mother's message is, \"Wear a mask, social distance, and most importantly, stay home. It's a short period in your life.\"

\"To those who don't believe, tell them to call me. Because I have pictures of Adeline gasping for air, of being chalk-white, turning blue in the mouth and being hooked up to every possible machine known to mankind,\" she said. \"It has wrecked our lives. It has permanently put a hole not only in my heart, my husband's heart, but our children's. Her siblings. They will never be the same.\"

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