On June 30th my mom woke up with all the symptoms of Covid-19. She was in Florida and we think she got Covid-19 from a Mexican restaurant she ate at on June 28th. She had a virtual visit with the doctors in FL – they gave her steroids and antibiotics. She couldn’t get a covid test for days because they were so booked. My aunt was with her and was able to drive them back to Ga. On July 6th mom went to the ER for a covid test, she was in a fib. They sent her home with blood thinners. Two days later the covid test came back positive. The next day, My aunt had to call 911 on 7/9/20 and mom went to the hospital with double pneumonia from COVID. It was touch and go until 7/11/20 and I got a call at 5 am that she was having to be intubated. I almost passed out. Her last words to the nurse were “call my daughter.” I knew going on the vent only gave her about 50% chance of surviving. It was gut wrenching day and night. I was not allowed at the hospital… I told them I would sign every right away. I was able to FaceTime to see her. One day-she blew me kisses and gave us a thumbs up. We thought she would pull through until that night. She vomited through the vent and aspirated and it went to her lungs. It was all down hill from here. Mom was at Tanner hospital in Villa Rica, Ga- I Begged EVERYDAY to have her transferred to a hospital with more advanced care. They are telling me everyday she’s critical, her blood pressure won’t stay up, the vent is at the full setting, we are going to have to paralyze her so she will stop fighting the vent, her X-ray of her lungs doesn’t look any better. Finally…. she was transferred to a Kennestone on 7/20/20 via ambulance. I was so scared she wouldn’t make the transfer but I had no choice at this point. 7/20/20 she tested COVID Negative. She had had plasma and rimdesivir at Tanner and all the other “miracle” steroids etc. At Kennestone, she continued to decline… she couldn’t maintain her blood pressure, vent was maxed, her kidneys failed and palliative care called. I had to make a decision- she could go into cardiac arrest at any moment. I wanted to be in control- not the damn virus. My husband and I went to the hospital on 7/24/20 to say good bye. We were in full on PPE. I made a choice to turn the vent off at 5:00… because it’s 5’o’clock somewhere and she could make it to heaven for a drink. I held her hand while she passed. Her body was ravaged by covid. It took 8 minutes. First her thumb went cold then the rest of her hand. I will never be ok that my perfectly healthy mother died of COVID. Her X-rays of her lungs were completely white… they should be black.
