November 3, 2009 Lincoln girl, 12, dies with H1N1 Play video

(NECN: Brad Puffer, Providence, R.I.) - For the second time in a week, a child with swine flu in the Ocean State has died.

"She was a beautiful little girl that touched many many lives," her mother, Carla Alves, said.

Skyla Reposa-Alves was just twelve years old. Her mother said she came down with flu-like illness last week, and for a short time, seemed to be getting better, but then began coughing.

"She was sick earlier in the week. On Thursday she had no fever, On Friday she seemed very off and she looked at me she said call the ambulance I am dying," Alves said. "She got to the hospital at twelve on Friday. By 10 p.m. on Saturday she was gone."

Rhode Island Health Director confirmed Tuesday she had contracted the H1N1 virus. And while she was born with Prader Willi Syndrome -- a genetic disorder that can lead to obesity -- she was otherwise healthy.

Her death comes less than a week after another healthy 12-year old Bristol girl also died after contracting the virus.

"What it shows us we are seeing a lot of people getting ill over a short amount of time and as we knew we expected to see some death with that," Rhode Island Health Director Dr. David Gifford said.

Rhode Island Health department has been moving aggressively to vaccinate children in schools first. And so far, they say 75 to 80 percent of children in the school clinics have gotten permission from their parents for the vaccination.

"We hope the more

Rhode Island is actually ahead of many states in using schools to vaccinate children. Massachusetts has not begun school clinics. Instead health officials say they have given a half million doses to high risk groups including pregnant women and children through community clinics and doctor's offices. Massachusetts has given it to health care workers, something Rhode Island chose to delay in favor of young children.

"She was supposed to get her vaccination on Thursday," Alves said.

Carla Alves says the H1N1 virus came too soon for her child, but she hopes other parents won't hesitate to protect their own children whenever the vaccine becomes available.

"If you want you kids healthy and you don't want them to die you need to get them vaccinated," Alves said.

If you missed NECN's special H1N1: What You Need to Know, you can watch it in its entirety by visiting your Comcast On Demand menu, clicking "get local," then "local networks," then "NECN." It will be available through the end of November. You can also watch segments of the program on NECN.com's H1N1 Latest News page.