Coronavirus Tales : From Fiction to Reality

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https://www.nwahomepage.com/northwe...it-destroys-your-family-in-a-blink-of-an-eye/

Rogers woman loses younger sister to COVID-19; ‘It destroys your family in a blink of an eye’



by: Samantha Boyd
Posted: Jul 14, 2021 / 05:23 PM CDT / Updated: Jul 14, 2021 / 05:33 PM CDT

ROGERS, Ark. (KNWA/KFTA) – A Northwest Arkansas woman is feeling the consequences of COVID-19 after losing her sister to the virus.

Within a matter of weeks, Clara Meyers said her younger sister was diagnosed with COVID-19 and died from it.

“The worst part was she was alone,” Meyers said. “We couldn’t go in and see her.”

Meyers is still emotional over the sudden loss of her sister, Shanna, who died Friday from COVID-19 at the age of 46.

She shouldn’t have got sick.”

CLARA MEYERS, LOST HER YOUNGER SISTER TO COVID-19

Meyers said Shanna was battling the virus for three weeks before it took her life.

• 
• 

SHANNA GIBONEY, LOST HER LIFE TO COVID-19
Stephanie Whitaker with Baptist Health in Fort Smith said now, the hospital is seeing its sickest patients starting as young as thirty.

“We just have found that these that are being hospitalized are younger than we were seeing earlier,” Whitaker said.

Many of those hospitalized, Whitaker said, are unvaccinated… like Shanna.

“She really didn’t think it mattered whether you were vaccinated or not because so many people that do get vaccinated end up getting sick anyway, and she hardly ever left her house,” Meyers said.

However, Whitaker said it can still impact your outcome.

“It’s really important if you have not been vaccinated to get vaccinated because it decreases the severity and likelihood of you to be hospitalized.”

Meyers seeing firsthand the life-changing impacts of what could be a deadly diagnosis.

It destroys your family in a blink of an eye. One minute she was okay one minute she wasn’t.”

CLARA MEYERS, LOST HER YOUNGER SISTER TO COVID-19
Meyers said despite the death of her sister she has not and does not plan to get vaccinated.

 

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Alabama mother says she regrets not getting vaccinated after losing son to COVID-19

Alabama mother says she regrets not getting vaccinated after losing son to COVID-19

BY ARIS FOLLEY - 07/25/21 06:07 PM EDT

A mother in Alabama is urging others to get vaccinated after she said her son died following a months-long health battle after contracting COVID-19, saying her decision not to get vaccinated is one she deeply regrets.

“It took watching my son die and me suffering the effects of covid for us to realize we need the vaccine,” Christy Carpenter said in a recent interview with The Washington Post. “We did not get vaccinated when we had the opportunity and regret that so much now.”

She said her 28-year-old son, Curt Carpenter, died in early May after having to stay in the hospital, where he received oxygen treatment for weeks, following his COVID-19 diagnosis in March.

Christy Carpenter told the Post her family had been hesitant to get vaccinated because of how quickly a vaccine became available.

“It took years to create other vaccines, and the coronavirus vaccine was created very quickly. That made us very nervous,” she told the newspaper.

The mother said she, her son and her daughter had all contracted the virus around the same time in March. She told the Post that they all had exhibited mild symptoms initially but that their conditions grew more serious within days.

Christy Carpenter said she and her son were taken to a local hospital after problems with their oxygen levels and that they both came down with pneumonia not long after.

In the weeks that followed, Christy Carpenter said her son’s health only worsened, as he continued to suffer from issues with his oxygen levels and pneumothorax before dying on May 2 after two months in the hospital.

She told the Post her son, who also has autism, was healthy prior to contracting the virus,

Now, Carpenter said she and her daughter are urging others to get vaccinated in her son’s memory.

“If Curt were here today, he would make it his mission to encourage everyone to get vaccinated. Cayla, his sister, and I are carrying out that mission in his memory,” she said.

“If we can help keep people healthier and possibly save lives by encouraging others to take the vaccine, then Curt’s death was not in vain. Life is a precious gift from God,” she added.

The story comes as Alabama has seen an uptick in coronavirus infections at a time when the state has attracted attention for having one of the country’s lowest vaccination rates.

Remarking on the increase in cases recently, Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey (R) said it's “time to start blaming the unvaccinated, not the regular folks.”

“It’s the unvaccinated folks that are letting us down,” she said, adding that folks should exercise “common sense.”

“These folks are choosing a horrible lifestyle and self-inflicted pain,” Ivey said. “You know we’ve got to get folks to take the shot. The vaccine is the greatest weapon we have to fight COVID, there’s not question about that, the data proves it.”

 

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Oklahoma woman begs people to get vaccinated as husband fights for life


https://kfor.com/news/coronavirus/o...to-get-vaccinated-as-husband-fights-for-life/




by: Kaitor Kay/KFOR
Posted: Jul 29, 2021 / 06:38 AM CDT / Updated: Jul 29, 2021 / 06:38 AM CDT


OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) – A cautionary tale from an Oklahoma City woman whose husband did not get the COVID-19 vaccine.

As of Wednesday, her husband spent his 9th day in the hospital in a medically induced coma on a ventilator.

Elizabeth Satter said her husband, Cheyne Satter, went from being a perfectly healthy 27-year-old to being debilitated by COVID and further complications of pneumonia.

She hopes sharing their struggle will persuade all those who aren’t vaccinated to finally get their shots.

“My husband is 27-years-old and otherwise healthy,” she said. “He had no pre-existing conditions, no anything, and COVID took him down. The vaccine is not going to stop COVID. You can’t stop COVID, but it is going to help as far as getting hospitalizations down.”

Elizabeth explained there was no convincing Cheyne to get the vaccine before this.

“He didn’t trust it,” she said. “He was like, ‘It was made in a year. I wouldn’t want something made that soon. I want more research and I want more stuff done on it to see how it affects people before I trust it.'”

On July 9, Cheyne started to suddenly feel exhaustion and dehydration.

On July 13, he was taken to the emergency room with a 104.8 degree fever. He was diagnosed with COVID-19 and pneumonia in both lungs, doctors saying the pneumonia was caused by COVID. He was prescribed medicine and released.

On July 15, Cheyne and Elizabeth went back to the E.R. as he continued to struggle. He was given fluids for dehydration.

At 4 a.m. on July 17, his struggle to breathe had become so intense that Elizabeth called EMSA for an ambulance.

“He couldn’t even walk from the bedroom to the couch, much less from the bedroom to the car to go to the hospital,” she said.

After a few days of treatment not working as effectively as desired, doctors put Cheyne on a ventilator and medically induced him into a coma. He’s been in that state since July 20.

Elizabeth has been sharing updates of the hospital stay on social media as she and her family struggle with the uncertainty.

“This has affected more than just me and Cheyne and his family,” she said. “It’s affected my family. It’s affected friends. It’s affected our jobs. It’s had a financial toll and a mental toll. The emotional instability is the worst thing, and I would never wish that upon anybody.”

She said prior to the coma, her husband expressed regret about his decision to not get the coronavirus vaccine.

“He told his mom, ‘Once I get over this, I’m running to go get my shot because I don’t ever want to feel like this again,'” she said.

Elizabeth is begging people to get vaccinated, for their sake and everyone around them.

“I just feel like above all else, above all the B.S. that’s running around, against all the false statements and strong opinions. Just do yourself a favor, do your family a favor, do your friends a favor. Just go get your shot. People should know the vaccine is there to help. COVID is not slowing down and it can happen to you.”

Doctors were hoping to get Cheyne off the ventilator this week, but then Wednesday morning, his pneumonia started getting worse.

They’ve told Elizabeth he could be in the hospital for three to six months.

 

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[Kyle C. Barker]

I've actually been trying to follow this story for months because after he went into the ICU there was radio silence about his progress.

Now low and behold he got a liver transplant and has just become part of the immunocompromised class where he has to rely on everyone else to reach herd immunity.

 

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Tennessee GOP rep who rejected masks now says COVID-19 is real and dangerous after his 8-month battle with the virus


Tennessee GOP rep who rejected masks now says COVID-19 is 'real and dangerous' after his 8-month battle with the virus

Matthew Loh
9 hours ago

David Byrd attends a special session of the House of Representatives in 2019.
Mark Humphrey/AP Photo

• Tennessee representative David Byrd used to support the idea that the media was sensationalizing the COVID-19 pandemic.
• In his 8-month battle with the virus, he developed pneumonia, jaundice, and liver failure.
• He now hopes that sharing his near-death experience will help people take the virus seriously.
• Visit Insider's homepage for more stories.

Tennessee GOP Rep. David Byrd is urging the public to take COVID-19 seriously and get vaccinated after his 8-month struggle with the virus, which saw him hospitalized and put under a ventilator for 55 days.

In a statement last Friday, he wrote that he was diagnosed with the virus the day before Thanksgiving last year and was admitted to the hospital on December 5.

The representative previously voted in favor of a June 2020 resolution that accused the media of sensationalizing the COVID-19 pandemic. He also attended a retreat for House Republican Caucus members last November involving barbecues and boat tours, where many were unmasked despite cases surging in the state at the time.

But after his battle with COVID-19, Byrd now wants people to take the virus seriously, calling it "real and dangerous."

"Up until this point in my life, I've been pretty healthy and active. Foolishly, I believed this virus only seriously affected people who are at high risk," he wrote in the statement obtained by NewsChannel 5 Nashville.

Byrd said the virus took over his lungs with "lightning speed," and he was diagnosed with pneumonia. He was placed on a ventilator in the intensive care unit, and his family had planned for the possibility of a funeral.

"I got sicker and sicker and more and more anxious. Every breath was pure agony," he wrote.

When his lungs got better, his liver started to fail, and he developed jaundice, putting him at fatal risk again, he said. Overall, he spent eight months either in the hospital or a rehabilitation facility, he added.

Byrd said he hoped that sharing his experience would show that the virus was "an enemy that knows no skin color, economic status, or political affiliation."

"I have never been against taking the Covid-19 vaccine, but I understand the concerns of those who are hesitant. To them, I would say Covid is real, and it is very dangerous," he said.

"It is a disease that wants to kill us. Please take it seriously. Please consider getting vaccinated. This is an issue that should not divide us," he continued.

In 2018, Byrd was accused by three women of sexually assaulting them when he was their high school basketball coach. Byrd did not directly deny the accusations but said he was unable to recall the incidents referred to by the women.

Despite calls for him to step down by his fellow representatives following the accusations, Byrd has not resigned.

 

[TheJet]

https://kfor.com/news/coronavirus/o...d-heart-transplant-to-survive-off-ventilator/

 

[Neo. The Only. The One.]

Can you imagine being on a ventilator and being under for 55 days?

And the beating your lungs had to take. You're in a medically induced coma for nearly 2 months so doctors can try to save your life.

Man this stuff is crazy.

 

[$cam-U-Well_Jack$on]

https://kfor.com/news/coronavirus/o...d-heart-transplant-to-survive-off-ventilator/

Might as well just say fukk it.

 

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https://kfor.com/news/coronavirus/o...d-heart-transplant-to-survive-off-ventilator/

Rebekah added that the vaccine has now become something they are discussing.

they worked in healthcare so were eligible for the vaccine early on in January.


the story is dated July 30th and they got covid back in march, shes still unvaccinated.

 

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https://www.firstcoastnews.com/amp/...ccine/77-84d67c44-2a01-4dd5-a494-cdbb7de16ab3

 

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https://www.star-telegram.com/news/nation-world/national/article253183023.html

Unvaccinated Texas mom and dad on ventilators beg their 4 kids to get COVID shots
BY MITCHELL WILLETTS

AUGUST 01, 2021 03:49 PM

Lydia and Lawrence Rodriguez of La Marque, Texas, are hospitalized in serious condition with COVID-19. They were unvaccinated, and before being put on ventilators, asked that their children receive COVID-19 vaccines. SCREENGRAB FROM FACEBOOK POST BY DOTTIE JONES.

It’s likely too late for Lydia Rodriguez to get vaccinated - she and her husband, Lawrence, are breathing with the help of machines in a Texas intensive care unit - but their four children, she hopes, will get the shots.

“One of the last things she said before being intubated was to make sure her kids get vaccinated,” Rodriguez’ cousin Dottie Jones said in a Facebook post.

Lydia and Lawrence Rodriguez, of La Marque, were admitted to a hospital three weeks ago, ill with COVID-19, KTRK reported. Despite constant medical care, the virus has continued ravaging their bodies.


“We’ve been told they are very, very, very, very sick is what the doctor told us,” Jones told the TV station. “And if they do survive, it’s going to be a long, long road.”

Jones is asking for prayers, words of encouragement, any and all help that friends can spare for her cousin and family. She’s taken in their kids for the time being, Jones said, and on top of the emotional toll, the household and medical bills are “becoming overwhelming.”

But this all could have been avoided, Jones said.

“My 42 yo cousin didn’t believe in the vaccine. Now she and her husband are in the ICU on vents fighting for their lives with this delta variant while their 4 children are at home,” Jones said on Facebook.

“The vaccine works and this delta variant is brutal. You don’t want to end up like them I promise.”

As contagious as chicken pox, the delta variant is rapidly spreading across the United States, spurring a significant increase in cases in recent weeks, McClatchy News reported. In late July, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the delta variant accounted for 83 percent of those cases.



While there are breakthrough cases, cases of vaccinated people catching coronavirus, these are rare, and experts say the COVID vaccines remain highly effective, McClatchy reported.

“I just am tired of the anti-vax rhetoric that is causing so many, like my cousin and her family, to not get vaccinated,” Jones told KTRK.

She hopes others will learn from her family and avoid becoming a cautionary tale themselves.

“Our hearts are just broken,” Jones said. “We hurt for the kids. We hurt for (their parents) and we just want them better and home.”

 

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https://www.star-telegram.com/news/nation-world/national/article253057023.html

Unvaccinated Missouri mother of 3 dies of COVID. Now her mom urges others to get a shot
BY MITCHELL WILLETTS

JULY 27, 2021 11:27 AM,
UPDATED JULY 27, 2021 11:48 AM

Erica Thompson, 37, died due to COVID-19 in Missouri. She was a mother of three boys. SCREENGRAB FROM FACEBOOK.

Kimberle Jones could only watch her daughter’s decline, her 50-day descent toward death.

Fifty days of hospitals, invasive machines and desperate treatments, each failing to save her from the damage COVID-19 wreaked on her body, Jones told KMOV.

“I just watched my baby slipping away every day,” she said.


Then on July 4th, the struggle ended. Erica Thompson died. She was 37 years old, a mother to three children, KTVI reported.

She was unvaccinated, Jones told the news station, she didn’t trust it.



To Jones, the lesson here is clear, and she’s sharing it with everyone she can.

“I really do believe had she been vaccinated she’d still be here with me today,” Jones told KMOV.

IN HOSPITAL WITHIN DAYS
In mid-May, Thompson began feeling ill, KMOV reported. As someone with asthma, Thompson just thought her condition was acting up — but she tested positive for COVID-19 and a few days later was admitted to a St. Louis area hospital.


Thompson’s mother described her as “energetic” and “upbeat,” the outlet reported.

By the end, Jones could hardly recognize her daughter, she told ABC News.

“She developed a lot of infections, blood clots, her kidneys started shutting down,” Jones said. “Her skin got real dark. It was just heartbreaking to watch her body not respond to any medication. I just felt like my daughter, it wasn’t even her.”

Now preparing for her funeral, Jones is pained not only by the loss of a child, but by memories of her final days, spent in fear and agony, Jones told the station.

“She cried and cried and said ‘I want to live,’ ” Jones remembers.


‘DON’T BE SELFISH,’ GRIEVING MOM SAYS
It all could have been avoided, Jones told ABC. Her daughter “adamantly didn’t believe” in any COVID vaccines, doubted she would ever catch the coronavirus, so she never got the shot.

It’s a mistake Jones doesn’t want anyone else to make.

“Don’t be selfish. Get vaccinated because it’s not only showing you love yourself, you love your community ... your neighbors, your employers, your co-workers,” she told ABC. “That’s my prayer. I want everybody to get vaccinated.”

 

[Barbados Slim]

This thread is very depressing and not for the obvious "it's sad that people died unnecessarily"...

We live in the most technologically advanced age in human history, where you have a device in your hand to gain genuine scientific facts in an instant. Modern medicine as it exists today is able to save millions from diseases and conditions that for centuries took the lives of CHILDREN before they could even make it to being an adult.

And yet people refuse to listen. When did people stop listening to medical professionals - how has humanity ended up here...?