A four-year-old girl from Strongsville, Ohio, named Maisie Schmidt, sadly passed away after what seemed like a simple cold turned out to be much more serious. Maisie’s family first thought she just caught a cold because she had a stuffy nose and a cough. Her dad, Patric Schmidt, mentioned that they expected a quick trip to the hospital, where they were told to just let Maisie rest and make sure she drank plenty of fluids.

However, Maisie started feeling even more tired, and her parents rushed her back to the hospital on March 23. The doctors did a special kind of picture of her head called a CT scan and discovered she was suffering from a very serious condition. They found bleeding in her brain and learned that Maisie had a stroke, a condition that’s very unusual in someone so young, on the right side of her brain.

Maisie was fighting a virus called the human metapneumovirus, which usually causes symptoms like those of a cold, including a runny nose and a sore throat. But this virus can lead to more serious problems like bronchitis or pneumonia. Although most people, especially kids, only get mild cold symptoms from this virus, it affected Maisie much more severely.

Doctors had to perform an emergency operation on Maisie’s brain to help relieve pressure inside her skull and to remove part of her brain that they said wasn’t needed for her to function normally.

Unfortunately, despite the doctors’ efforts, Maisie’s condition didn’t improve, and on March 26 at 11 a.m., she had to be taken off life support. Her family and friends are very sad and miss her a lot. They want to remember Maisie by focusing on the happy moments and keeping a positive outlook on life, just like she would have wanted.