Family speaks out after boy, 12, hospitalized with COVID-19

An Alabama family's life was turned upside down when their 12-year-old son, a healthy, strong athlete, caught COVID-19 and landed in the hospital struggling to breathe.

Brody Barnett, a seventh grader from Chilton County, and his family are speaking out to warn the public of the dangers of the delta variant.
His mother, GeriLynn Vowell, told ABC News that her son tested positive on Aug. 6 and suffered extreme symptoms, including coughing and trouble breathing, within a day.

"He's told his friends, 'This is the worst that I've ever been sick,'" she said.

PHOTO: 12-year-old Brody Barnett is hospitalized with Covid-19 in Chilton County, Ala.
GeriLynn Vowell
GeriLynn Vowell
12-year-old Brody Barnett is hospitalized with Covid-19 in Chilton County, Ala.
He said being in the hospital was a "scary experience," adding, "It ain't nothing to joke with," to local ABC Birmingham affiliate WBMA-LD.

Brody, who was not vaccinated, was first exposed at the beginning of last week after going to a friend's home where someone later tested positive for the virus. After hearing news of that positive result his family bought at-home COVID-19 kits.

"I tested Brody and his test popped up positive immediately. Then we went to an actual testing site and it was the same result," Vowell said.

Vowell explained that she had tested negative for the COVID-19 test but positive for antibodies.

"My husband nor I have been vaccinated because we were positive for antibodies previously. We had just gotten the original COVID a few months back. So, we had just kind of been waiting to be vaccinated," she said. She says they'll get the vaccine when they test negative for antibodies.

Health experts recommend people get vaccinated even if they have been exposed to the virus because the vaccines are known to provide more durable protection, including against the delta variant. A study released Aug. 6 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that people who were unvaccinated were more than twice as likely to be reinfected compared to people who were vaccinated.

The night Brody tested positive he got a runny nose and started coughing. The next day it progressed to the point that he couldn't breathe and felt pain in his ribcage.

"He was like, 'I cannot breathe, I cannot take a breath,'" she said. "He couldn't raise his arms over his head and take a breath."