A 32-year-old pregnant Alabama nurse and her unborn baby died of Covid-19 after the woman refused to get vaccinated against the virus.
Haley Mulkey Richardson, 32, who worked in the labour and delivery unit at a hospital in Pensacola, Florida, contracted Covid-19 around three weeks before she died, on Friday.
Haley, who lived outside Mobile, was transferred to an ICU after her symptoms worsened.
Jason told the news outlet that Haley was home sick for about a week, before her heart rate shot up.
She was rushed to the USA Health Children’s and Women’s Hospital in Mobile, then moved to the ICU at USA Health’s main hospital campus in Mobile several days after.
“After about three or four days in the hospital, the [obstetrician] told her that she was going to lose the baby,” Jason said. “And she continued to get worse and worse.”
At some point, Jason said, Haley was told she would have to be treated as if she didn't have a child - as her baby was going to pass anyway.
Haley, who left behind a daughter and a husband, Jordan, posted on Facebook about her illness, before she was reportedly put on a ventilator.
“Here in the dark, in the wee hours of the morning, it is so easy to pretend that all of this was just a nightmare or that I’m just here in this hospital bed due to my own issues with Covid,” Richardson wrote.
“Not for anything being wrong with my sweet baby girl whom I thought I was protecting in my own womb.”
“I know the prognosis and I know the reality. And while part of me may start to acknowledge this, the other part of me still believes God is still the God of miracles and is in control above all else.
“I hope and pray for miracles, but having said that I am also praying for his will to be done. If there has ever been a time to ask for something to be taken out of my own hands and put in his, it is now.”
Haley’s mother, Julie Mulkey, said her daughter had refused to get vaccinated, despite the hospital where she worked having mandated it, reports Al.com.
She had reportedly harboured concerns that it would cause anaphylactic reactions, which she had suffered from in the past.
Another factor, Julie said, was the negative reporting that had gone on around the possible effects of the vaccine on women's reproductive systems.
America’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has urged all pregnant women to get vaccinated, including expectant mothers who don’t have a higher risk of serious illness and pregnancy complications such as miscarriages and stillbirths.
Local doctor Karen Leigh Samples said reports linking Covid-19 vaccines to infertility had “no scientific evidence supporting them”.
Alabama as a state is falling behind in vaccination rates, with less than 37 percent of the population fully inoculated against COVID-19.
Meanwhile, it is grappling with an average of more than 4,000 new cases a day, according to Johns Hopkins University.
Following Haley’s death, Julie and her other daughter are urging other pregnant women in Alabama to get the Covid vaccine.
