Mother Is Warning Others After Sweet 10-Year-Old Daughter Died From 'Sugar Crash' At Sleepover

Sep 25, 2018

In Pennsylvania, a small community is mourning the loss of a ten-year-old girl. She died in her sleep while she spent the night at a friend's house.

Sleepovers are part of the fun of growing up for young girls. The best memories are those nights spent at a friend's house catching fireflies and toads in the backyard, plucking blackberries from the neighbor's bush. These times also included watching movies, listening to boy bands and stuffing their faces with junk food.

September 15th, 2018, Sophia Daughtery, who was a fifth grader in New Castle, went to a sleepover in the same sort of fashion. WXPI News states that what happened on that fateful night was that her blood sugar went down dramatically, and she had to be rushed to the emergency room the next morning. She suffered brain trauma from these dangerously low blood sugar levels.

After hearing about the incident, people in town started a GoFundMe to help her family cover medical costs and to share updates. She already knew that she had Type 1 diabetes and wasn't going to let that stop her. She had been a cheerleader, a softball player, and a Girl Scout. The superintendent, Len Rich, says that she was known as "sweet Sophia".

But after spending a total of four days in the hospital, and she unfortunately passed away on September 16th, 2018. Now the community is mourning their loss of this little girl. The school district had to get counselors at the school and people in the community to help both students and teachers work through their grief about her death. Dan Svirlby, the school principal explained that there were a lot of kids to deal with but that they have a great staff and great counselors.

Some of the high school counselors even came down to help support the children and the staff members. He wanted them to know that it is alright not to be okay. He said that he believes it's best for them to be together and work through the grief that is a normal part of life after people die. It's normal to cry and have feelings and not understand why but working together allows people to get through things. Sophia's parents have announced that they want to donate her organs.

Our thoughts and prayers are with everyone who knew Sophia. Do you know someone with Diabetes I? Pass this story on to your friends to raise awareness to the danger of Diabetes and to honor Sophia.