A coronavirus survivor has recalled the heartbreaking moment she watched her mother die while the two battled the virus together in hospital.
Anabel Sharma was able to hold her mum's hand at the Leicester Royal Infirmary as the 76-year-old passed away, Stoke Sentinel reported.
Anabel, 49, has shared the devastating image of her and her mother and made a desperate Covid-19 appeal.
Her mum, Maria Rico, was allowed to take her oxygen mask off to say a final farewell to Anabel and her sister Susana who had been allowed in the intensive care unit in full PPE.
Anabel, who had to watch her mum's funeral on a live stream, has now made an emotional appeal to people to follow the Covid-19 rules to try to stop the spread of the virus, reports The Mirror.
The 49-year-old from Whitwick, in Leciestershire, said: "Don't let this be you. The speed Covid ravaged through our family was frightening. Anyone can get it and it's roulette whether you will survive.
"If anyone is thinking about breaking the rules I'd urge them to put themselves in my shoes for a moment and think about what it might be like to watch your mum die, or be told that you might not live.
"We were so careful about what we did because mum lived with us. We had food delivered and I only ever did the school run. I never thought Covid would hit us but it did. And it could be anyone."
Maria was the last of her family to fall ill after Anabel's 12-year-old son Isaac contracted Covid following the September return to school.
Maria, Anabel, her husband Bharat, 47, an account manager, and two other sons Jacob, 22, and Noah, 10, all fell ill within days of each other.
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Mother and daughter were taken to Leicester Royal Infirmary mid-October and placed on oxygen a few beds away from each other.
Two weeks later, doctors wheeled Maria's bed next to her daughter's where the grandmother explained she had signed a Do Not Resuscitate order.
"Mum was trying to talk to me but it's so noisy inside the hood I couldn't hear her," said Anabel.
"All I heard were the words 'cremation' and 'ready to die'. I was crying but mum was so brave.
"I asked the doctors to take this picture of us then they took mum back to her bay."
The next day, doctors told Anabel that Maria didn't have long to live and wheeled her to her mother's bedside.
Anabel, a keen kickboxer whose lungs were so badly damaged she now has to rely on oxygen to get around, said: "Mum said she was very proud of us, that she loved us and that she was ready to go.
"The nurses gave mum medication to make her more comfortable and then she passed away."
Anabel spent another three weeks in intensive care before being transferred to a recovery ward where she had to watch her mum's funeral on live streaming.
"It was horrendous," she said. "I felt so alone."
