When Jasmin Chavez heard that her mom, Sara Montoya, 43, posted a video to Fb urging individuals to take COVID-19 critically, she was embarrassed. She requested her mother to take away it, however Montoya refused.
After her mom posted that video on July 5, her situation worsened and she or he handed away from COVID-19 on August 13. Now Chavez has watched all the video and feels grateful that her mother shared such a shifting and vital message.
“I’m glad she didn’t take heed to me. Her video has been considered over 5 million occasions and I’m glad individuals notice this virus is actual,” the 24-year-old accounting specialist in El Paso, Texas, informed TODAY through electronic mail. “I actually thought she’d be coming house with an oxygen machine. My household nonetheless wanted her. I simply need our neighborhood to take the virus critically.”
Within the video, Montoya gasps for breath as she shares her heartbreaking story:
“By no means in my life did I ever suppose that I’d be combating for my breath, one thing that we take as a right day by day once we get up. Please don’t put your households in danger. I did the perfect that I believed I might. It isn’t value it. Put your masks on. Don’t exit should you don’t should,” she mentioned. “I’ve fought too onerous to have the life that I’ve now and I refuse to surrender. I miss my youngsters. I miss my husband … With the grace of God I will probably be strolling out of this hospital. I don’t know when however I’ll.”
‘Unbearable fevers’
On the finish of June, Montoya felt sick with what she thought was a “easy sinus an infection.” Because it obtained worse, she visited an area hospital the place docs despatched her house as a result of she didn’t have COVID-19 signs, Chavez mentioned. Montoya was recognized with an higher respiratory an infection, however she visited a COVID-19 testing website for a take a look at.
As she waited for the outcomes, she developed “insufferable fevers” and her husband known as an ambulance. On July 1, she was admitted to the hospital and discovered she was optimistic for COVID-19. By July 3, her husband was additionally hospitalized. Whereas she solely required oxygen for the primary a part of her 44-day keep, she ultimately wanted to be intubated.
“Earlier than getting ventilated, I spoke to my mom,” Chavez mentioned. “I immediately started to interrupt down and cry … ‘No llores mi nina’ had been the final phrases I heard from my mom.”
Montoya mentioned “no extra tears” as a crying Chavez tried comforting her mom by saying, “You’re going to be OK.” Two hours later, Chavez known as again and her mother had been intubated. Every week later, docs found Montoya had methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in her lungs. Whereas the information nervous the household, Montoya appeared to enhance over time.
“We had been capable of Zoom her. It was one of many hardest issues to see my mom with all these tubes coming from her mouth and chest,” she mentioned. “There have been occasions her face was so swollen her eyes had been tightly shut.”
The household saved shut contact along with her care workforce on the hospital and shortly discovered that docs had few different therapy choices for Montoya. On August 13, she handed away at age 43.
“She was so younger,” Chavez mentioned. “She had an extended life forward of her to stay. She had her first grandson on the way in which in November.”
Warning others
Montoya was a homemaker so she solely left the home for “necessities, reminiscent of groceries, cleansing, provides, and so forth.” Her husband and father-in-law additionally examined optimistic for COVID-19. Whereas her husband spent 4 days within the hospital, her father-in-law had no signs and easily remoted himself at house. The household mentioned Montoya had no underlying circumstances and was bereft by the demise of their matriarch. However they need others to be taught from Montoya’s expertise.
“Folks ought to take this virus critically and proceed to remain house if they will,” Chavez mentioned. “I attempted to be my mother’s voice as greatest as I might to do all the pieces in my energy to get her house.”
The household arrange a GoFundMe to lift cash for his or her mom’s sudden funeral bills. Chavez encourages individuals to be protected and do what they will to forestall the unfold of COVID-19.
“I need individuals to proceed to put on their masks, wash their palms, and solely go away their home when needed,” she mentioned. “There’s not a remedy.”