But his mom said Monday that the young University of North Carolina Wilmington student was brain dead from complications of the virus, soon to be taken off life support.
Gilreath, from Cary, contracted COVID-19 last month,
according to WECT.
His mother, Tamra Demello, is still trying to process it.
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“This is just such a devastating shock,” she said. “It’ll just leave such a hole in our heart forever that can never be filled.”
The junior at UNCW was healthy and had no underlying medical conditions.
Demello said she tried over the summer to convince Gilreath to get vaccinated.
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“I just cajoled and threatened,” she said. “Did everything I could possibly think. I think he did some research where he was thinking that it was going to hurt his heart long-term or something. I’m not even sure where he was getting his information which is super frustrating. Sometimes I felt like the harder I pushed, the more he basically said to me, ‘mom leave me alone I can take care of myself.'”
Within 2 days of arriving in Wilmington for the start of school, Tyler got sick.
“Two days after he moved in with brand new roommates he got Covid from them,” his mother said. “He was very, very sick for three weeks. He got over COVID but it left him with a horrendous sinus infection that somehow penetrated his brain.”
Tyler, who was studying computer science, never even made it to campus.
They thought he was getting better but when Tyler started acting erratically last week, his roommates rushed him to the hospital.
Tyler regained consciousness long enough to see his family but by Friday, he was brain dead.
“If it can even save one person who is on the fence or if a parent can use it to say, ‘look how shattered this whole family is…’ This probably won’t happen to you but if there’s any remote possibility that it could — it’s a shot.”
Tyler’s mom takes some solace knowing her son’s life wasn’t lost in vain — his organs and tissue will help up to 80 other people.