14-Year-Old In ICU After Falling Ill During School Trip In Barcelona, Her Father Says ‘She’s A Fighter’

Families pull together during hard times. A San Diego family is praying for a 14-year-old girl fighting for her life after contracting pneumonia during a school trip to Spain.

NBC San Diego reported that the young girl, Destinee Allen, was hospitalized while visiting Barcelona. Later it was discovered that she had pneumonia.

It was a frightful few days for her parents, Whitney Williams and Jevonnte Allen, before doctors knew what was wrong. Destinee’s father said, “We barely got to identify that it was pneumonia, for the first couple of days, we knew nothing.”

What seemed to be a cold turned out to be a septic infection. Williams told NBC San Diego, “With her having a heart condition, it caused her to have issues with her heart rate, and septic made her have low blood pressure, and they found out that she had an infection in her organs, and so they transferred her to the hospital where she is now and placed her in the ICU so that they can better care for her.”

Seven years ago, the family lost their son, who also had a heart condition. Allen said to the outlet, “With my son, we went through so much for two to three years, in and out of the hospital, there for six months. You just have to have faith in God.”

The family has faith that Destinee will pull through. “She’s a fighter, and I feel like she’s going to make it happen,” Allen said. “There’s going to be a happy ending to this story.”

NBC San Diego reported Williams and Allen are with Destinee in Spain, where she will remain for weeks until returning to San Diego.

Destinee traveled to Spain after graduating eighth grade at the Language Academy in San Diego, where, CBS 8 reported, she studied Spanish.