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Grand Rapids girl dies from COVID-19 after nearly 2 weeks hospitalized

Honestie Hodges, whose experience with Grand Rapids Police in 2017 sparked outrage, had been placed on a ventilator before she died, her family says.

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — After spending nearly two weeks in a Grand Rapids hospital, a teenage girl has died from COVID-19, her family says.

Fourteen-year-old Honestie Hodges, whose experience with Grand Rapids Police in 2017 sparked outrage, had been placed on a ventilator at Helen DeVos Children's Hospital before she died, according to a GoFundMe started by her grandmother. 

Hodges tested positive for COVID-19 on Nov. 9 – her 14th birthday – her grandmother, Alisa Niemeyer, wrote. After testing positive and then being sent back home, Hodges was taken to the hospital in an ambulance later that night.

Niemeyer posted frequent updates to the GoFundMe over the last few weeks. On Nov. 18, she indicated Hodges' condition had worsened. 

"Update on Honestie, she is not doing well at all please, please, please pray like you’ve never prayed before!!!," Niemeyer wrote in an update.

On Sunday, Nov. 22, she posted to the page again, saying, “It is with an extremely heavy heart that I have to tell all of you that my beautiful, sassy, smart, loving granddaughter has gone home with Jesus.”

RELATED: 'Makes me physically nauseous,' GRPD Chief on body cam footage of 11-year-old being cuffed

RELATED: GRPD's 'Honestie policy' now on the books and in effect

In 2017, when Hodges was 11 years old, Grand Rapids Police held the girl at gunpoint and handcuffed her during a search for a stabbing suspect on the city's westside. 

After watching body camera footage of the incident, then-Police Chief David Rahinsky said he felt "physically nauseous." No officers were disciplined for the incident. Instead, it resulted in a new youth interaction policy, coined the 'Honestie policy.' 

Niemeyer's GoFundMe has a goal of $15,000; currently, over $7,000 has been raised. In the page’s description, Niemeyer said she is asking for donations for her daughter – Hodges' mother – who also has four other children. Donations can be made here.

Hodges' death is one in an increasing number in Michigan as positive COVID-19 cases continue to surge. On Saturday, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services reported 7,528 daily cases of coronavirus, along with 101 deaths. The death toll has now reached 8,478.

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