After a month-long battle with COVID-19, a 36 year old woman from Dickson County, Tennessee passed away after giving birth!
Amanda Perry was 32 weeks pregnant when she tested positive for the virus and she needed an emergency C-section to rescue her baby.
Furthermore, the patient was not vaccinated and it was a conscious decision not to get the shot.
More precisely, she had a history of miscarriages and was scared that the vaccine might cause her to lose this baby as well, a widely spread but disproven belief.
Despite having an increased risk of suffering complications from getting the virus, pregnant people are one of the most unvaccinated demographic in the United States, only about 35% of them having received their shots.
Perry had apparently planned on getting vaccinated after welcoming her baby just to make sure they were safe.
Upon catching the virus, however, her health got increasingly bad and she even needed to give birth prematurely, requiring emergency C-section.
A high school friend of Amanda’s by the name of Elizabeth Ratliff, who also set up a GoFundMe account on her family’s behalf said that “To know Amanda was to love her. Her smile was contagious. Her warmth and kindness were felt by all who crossed her path. She truly had the sweetest soul and most tender heart. The love she had for her children and being their momma was boundless and evident in everything she did.”
Amanda’s husband, Billy, told WKRN in Nashville that his late wife was 32 weeks along when she got hospitalized with COVID-19 caused pneumonia on September 15.
To save her baby, medical specialists at TriStar Centennial Medical Center in Nashville performed an emergency caesarian surgery.
The couple shared six children together, two from Amanda’s previous marriage, three from Billy’s and, of course, their newborn son.
Amanda was transported to another hospital due to capacity issues and was then placed on a ventilator.
Her symptoms included fever, inflamed breast tissue (mastitis), bacteria in her blood and even one collapsed lung.
Billy told Newsweek that “We didn’t have options. She was terrified. I was terrified. Covid’s a killer. You hear about it on TV all the time, but it never really hits home. Yeah, somebody you work with might get Covid but you don’t know anybody that’s having their whole world ripped apart because of it. Then when it happens, it’s awful. It came out of nowhere and it happened so fast.”
When the husband realized there was no way Amanda was going to survive the infection, he flew in her mother so that they could say their final goodbyes.
On Sunday, the doctors told the family that her condition had deteriorated so much, death was no longer avoidable.
Hearing this, Billy decided to have the tube in her throat that was keeping her alive, removed, so she would die a painless death.
Billy told Newsweek that “I wish we had talked more about getting the vaccine. We weren’t against it. We weren’t anti-vax. When you’re pregnant what do you do? There’s not much research out there. She was freaking scared.”
But while that is a valid concern for pregnant women who fear for the safety of their unborn babies and may be easily swayed by unreliable information online, multiple studies have proven that the COVID-19 vaccine is not only safe for pregnant individuals, it is recommended!
After all, it looks like expectant women who get infected are in a lot of serious danger!
One new study proved that pregnant people have an increased risk of needing emergency C-section and that their newborns are significantly more likely to also need medical care after birth.
Even worse, their risk of dying before giving birth is also high, as per another study from the U.K.
Unfortunately, despite such data, many other pregnant women still hesitate to get vaccinated, just like Perry.
Ratliff wrote that “The love she had for her children and being their momma was boundless and evident in everything she did. She loved nothing more than being a mother to her boys and a wife to her husband. Amanda and Billy prayed for years for another baby, and she was over the moon when she became pregnant with baby Nolan. Her unwavering love of Billy and their family was unmatched.”
Since Amanda is also survived by two other children from her previous marriage, a court date has been set for December 21 to decide whether Billy or the biological father will get custody.
In the meantime, the mourning children remain in the custody of their grandmother, Carlene – Amanda’s mother.
