Family mourns New Mexico’s youngest Covid-19 victim at age 12; sister held his hand as he died

ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico -- A family is mourning the death of 12-year-old Aedan Selph, who this week became the youngest New Mexican to die from coronavirus — and they have a message for others.

His sister, Evelyn Wolfe, explained that her father is an essential worker and unknowingly brought the virus home.

“We have medically fragile kids in the household, but this really can happen to anybody's family,” she said in an interview Friday with CNN. "We want everybody to know that.”

As of Sunday, both her father and Aedan were in the ICU. Her father was released earlier this week, but Aedan’s left lung collapsed on Monday, she said.

“I went into the room and held my brother's hand in his last breath,” Wolfe said. 

Her family, who lives in the Albuquerque area, adopts children who are medically fragile. Aedan was born premature and blind, and the family adopted him and his twin sister when they were 7 months old.

“I am trying to stay off all of the media forums. I just can't handle somebody saying ‘hey, well he did have an underlying condition.’ Absolutely, he did. But it was managed. If it was not for coronavirus, if it was not for Covid, my brother would still be here,” Wolfe said. 

“What I want people to think about is yeah, you might be OK right now, but you don't know who the person next to you has at home,” she added. 

Wolfe said Aedan loved watching the Kansas City Chiefs with his dad every Sunday.

“He didn't verbalize the same as we do… His laugh was the most amazing thing. You tell him you love him, he’d just laugh at you. It was amazing,” she said.

A GoFundMe page has been created to help the family get through the suffering.