NEW ORLEANS- A 12-year-old's fight for survival in New Orleans comes on the heels of a discovery made by UK doctors.

A perfectly healthy and active child went into cardiac arrest, then intubation in the ICU without showing common COVID symptoms.

"After they put the breathing tube down her throat, her heart stopped and they had to do extreme measures. They had to do two minutes of CPR. At that point, my whole world just crumbled," mother Jennifer Daly said about her daughter.

 Just three weeks ago, Jennifer's daughter Juliette was fighting for her life after being airlifted to a hospital in New Orleans with heart failure.

"I died for two minutes," Juliette said.

She was diagnosed with a rare heart condition caused by inflammation and she tested positive for COVID-19. Doctors say the virus likely triggered the heart condition.

Juliette's symptoms were not typical of coronavirus patients. No prolonged fever, cough, or trouble breathing.

"COVID-19 can infect the heart and it can cause the cells in the heart to be unhappy and actually start to die," Pediatric Cardiologist Dr. Jake Kleinmahon said.

"I felt really bad, my stomach would not stop hurting. I didn't want to move, I didn't want to live, I wanted for it all to stop," Juliette said. 

Doctors in the UK and Italy are sending out an urgent alert as they have seen an increase in severely ill children with the inflammatory syndrome and multi-organ failure, similar to what Juliette experienced.

Doctors stress these illnesses in children are extremely rare. Most children with COVID-19 have mild symptoms.

Juliette has recovered, but her mom says she is lucky.

"I am so grateful the doctors diagnosed it so quickly and were able to get her treated," Jennifer Daly said.

The number of COVID cases among children remains small and while some children and infants have been sick with the virus, adults make up most of the known cases to date, according to the CDC.