Lydia Rodriguez died of viruses a few weeks after losing her husband to the same cause, neither of them believed in doses against VOCID-19 and when they did it was too late.
“Please make sure my kids get vaccinated,” Lydia Rodriguez’s latest phone call to her family from an Intensive Care Unit (ICU) bed at a hospital in Texas, in the United States, where she remained hospitalized for more than a month due to COVID-19.
The 42-year-old woman, who was a piano teacher, died on August 16, two weeks after losing her husband, Lawrence, 49, to viral complications. They both battled the disease from the ICU beds in a care center, a few feet apart, Lydia’s cousin Dottie Jones told The Washington Post.
The couple, who were married 21 years and leaves four children in the orphanage, did not believe in coronavirus vaccines and when they finally wanted to apply the dose it was too late.
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The marriage was among tens of millions of Americans who have not yet received at least one dose of the SARS-CoV-2 virus vaccine, which is available for free to people over 12 years.
Health officials have stressed that the vaccine significantly reduces the chances of getting seriously ill or dying from the virus, the washingtonpost.com portal details.
Reference image. Photo: AFP
However, the children of the Rodriguez, now orphans, join the millions of people tragically affected by this disease, sometimes fatal.
The case of the Rodriguez family is echoed by other unvaccinated patients who have asked their doctors to give them doses of vaccines before they are intubated.
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“Lydia has never really believed in vaccines,” Jones, 55, told The Post. “She believed she could handle everything on her own, that she didn’t really need the medicine.”
Jones is a neonatal nurse and based on her experience of severe cases of COVID-19 in mothers and babies she treated at the hospital where she worked she says she advised her cousin on the consequences of the disease as it went explain that there are patients who stay connected to a ventilator for weeks without showing improvement, but all indications are that Lydia never heeded the recommendations.
“I knew I would never get vaccinated,” Jones told The Post. “I was very worried.”
Vaccination against COVID-19 in Texas, USA. Reference image. Photo: AFP
In early July, Jones’ fears came true as the Rodriguez family contracted COVID-19. The contagion occurred after Lydia and her children returned from a Christian church camp where they were congregating.
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Jones indicated that one by one the Rodriguez members, including Lawrence who had not accompanied them to the exit for their work tested positive for coronavirus.
She went on to say that the family did not tell anyone that she was ill, until on July 12 Lydia’s husband took her to the hospital when she experienced breathing problems. They both ended up in a care center, she in an ICU.
Meanwhile, the family was in charge of bringing food and medicine to the couple’s four children under the age of 18 who were also infected and in quarantine, although the youngest of them had mild symptoms, the rest were asymptomatic, Jones said. .
Although, for a moment, Lawrence’s health condition appeared to be improving, a couple of days after his admission, he was rushed to the ICU. He applied for a coronavirus vaccine shortly before they put a fan on him, Jones said, but it was also too late for him. He died on August 2.
In those days, Lydia Rodríguez relied entirely on an oxygen mask that prevented her from talking to her children, who called her and sang praises to lift her spirits.
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“We are praying for you and caring for the children,” Jones explained as he told his cousin during his last days.
Lydia took advantage of her last call to ask her family member to make her a promise: “Please make sure my children are vaccinated,” noting that three of them are already fit to receive the doses.
Now, the family has set up an online fundraiser to help the Rodriguez children as the courts decide who will become the guardian of the minors.