YUCAIPA, California (AP) – The husband of a Southern California nurse who died of complications from COVID-19 more than two weeks ago has died after battling the disease himself, leaving behind five young children, including a girl newborn.
Daniel Macias of Yucaipa died Thursday, a family member told KTLA-TV.
“I don’t know anyone who loves their kids as much as they do, and they made sure they told them every day,” Daniel’s sister-in-law Terri Serey told the station. “I want them to be aware of how much they love each other. And I want them to know how much their parents loved them. ”
Daniel and his wife, Davy, were admitted to the hospital’s intensive care unit last day after being diagnosed with COVID-19. A doctor gave birth to the couple’s daughter eight days before Davy Macias’ death.
According to family members, the parents never had a chance to meet or name their daughter.
“It simply came to our notice then. We were really looking for Daniel after Davy died. We wanted her to wake up and call her baby girl, ”Terri Serey told KTLA.
The couple presented with symptoms after taking a family trip to the beach and an indoor water park in late July, family members reported.
Macias’ brother, Vong Serey, told the San Bernardino Sun. last month, her sister was not vaccinated against COVID-19 and hesitated to receive the shot because she was pregnant. She was a nurse in the delivery room and parts of Kaiser Fontana Medical Center and had worked throughout the pandemic, she said.
Serey did not know if her brother-in-law had been vaccinated.
Daniel Macias was a middle school math teacher at Rialto Unified School District, said district spokeswoman Syeda Jafri.
He is remembered “as a compassionate, kind, fun-loving, and generous teacher at Jehue Middle School, but he was also a devoted family man,” the district said in a statement.
The couple’s children, ages 7 and under, are in the care of their grandparents, according to family members.