Mom speaks out after teen son dies of COVID in Mississippi. ‘So broken I can’t breathe’
After losing her teenage son to COVID-19, a Mississippi mother is pleading for everyone to “please, please get vaccinated.”
Tracie Young said her son, 16-year-old Landon Woodson, was the picture of health and “had never been in a hospital” before he contracted the coronavirus, according to a Sept. 23 Facebook post. He died two days later at Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee.
“My Baby My precious Son I’m soo broken I can’t breathe without this child,” his mother wrote Sept. 25. “He is being taken off of ventilator and everything We are letting God have him now I can’t say Goodbye.”
Landon was a sophomore and varsity football player at North Pontotoc High School in Ecru, a city about 23 miles northwest of Tupelo. When he wasn’t on the gridiron, the teen “enjoyed working on antique cars,” according to his online obituary.
A graveside service is scheduled for Wednesday in Blue Mountain.
News of Landon’s death triggered an outpouring of condolences from family, friends and classmates. Close friend Andrew Philips said the two often bonded over their shared love and appreciation for football.
“He’s the reason why I wanted to go further and play college football,” Philips told WTVA. “Talking about him and seeing him get excited within himself, I noticed sometimes that I would sometimes get excited too. Just talking about the game with him, it was like a motivating factor for me.”
A teen who identified herself as a former classmate of Landon’s remembered him as a “jokester” who “never failed to make anyone laugh,” even on their worst day.
“He will be missed a lot. I’ll never forget ur son,” they wrote on Facebook.
The Pontotoc County School District also shared a post from former coach and NPHS principal Brian Sutton, who said he was “heartbroken” to hear of Landon’s passing.
“Please pray for his family and our school,” Sutton wrote. “Even though we don’t always understand, God is still in control.”
Even as the highly contagious delta variant drives a surge in new COVID-19 cases across Mississippi, the state’s vaccination rate for people 12 and older lags behind the national average. Unvaccinated or partially vaccinated Mississippians also make up 88% of COVID-related hospitalizations and 86% of deaths, according to the latest data from the state’s Department of Health.
The Magnolia State reported 1,098 new confirmed cases on Tuesday, bringing the total case count to 487,293 since the start of the pandemic.
This story was originally published September 29, 2021 at 8:48 AM with the headline "Mom speaks out after teen son dies of COVID in Mississippi. ‘So broken I can’t breathe’."