The infant child of a pregnant teenager who died Tuesday after collapsing at school lost her battle for life Saturday night, according to the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office.
Veronica Sotelo, 16, collapsed Tuesday at Polytechnic High School in Fort Worth and died at a hospital. Her baby, Ginger, was quickly delivered by doctors at Cook Children's Hospital and placed in intensive care for four days before she passed away Saturday night.
Classmates said Sotelo was acting normally and showed no signs of health problems. The medical examiner lists the manner of death for the young mother to be as natural. An exact cause of death had not been determined as of Sunday morning.
A friend of Sotelo’s, Steve Espinosa, said she said just a couple of days before her unexpected death that she couldn’t wait to hold her baby. "Now this tragedy happened,” Sotelo said earlier this week. “She didn't even get a chance to touch the baby."
Sotelo's friends honored honoring the 11th-grader by wearing her favorite colors to school -- black and white -- and a ribbon in the school's colors.“Veronica was known around the school,” Luis Cruz told NBCDFW soon after learning of the teen’s death.
"She was a real kind and quiet student," Raul Chamorro said. "She was real respectful to everyone, and she always turned in her work on time." Students said Sotelo's boyfriend also attends Polytechnic High. They said the couple was excited that their first child would soon be born.
"She took care of her child, and she really loved her boyfriend," Jonathan Hurd said. "I think that other people should take caution and take this as a notice -- take care of [themselves] and their family and cherish their life."
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Background information from a previous story by NBCDFW’s Julie Tam used in this report
