A first-time mum has lost her life to Covid before she could hold her new baby in her arms. She caught the virus in the last months of her pregnancy and was compelled to have her daughter delivered via an emergency C-section.
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‘Depression and despair’
Aimee 'Jacqueline' Ayala, 22, from El Paso, Texas, in the US was hospitalized on November 13 after contracting Covid and had to have the delivery done immediately.
She only saw her daughter briefly before her condition declined. She was intubated in a last ditch effort to help her breath.
Days before she died, she had posted online about her ‘depression and despair’ over being kept away from her baby.
Being a first mother is one of the worst feelings. I'm getting into a depression and despair, and as much as I hear "cheer up, everything's going to be alright. "“Make you want it” “Everything is going to happen”, it makes me so much harder.
She succumbed to the disease on November 30, leaving behind her newborn daughter and partner, Juan Pablo Morales Orozco. He said:
I’ve been able to take her home, hold her and sleep with her. She has been a strength… she’s the one carrying me instead of me carrying her
Beautiful inside and out
Prior to her being infected with the virus, Jacqueline looked healthy and joyful in the photos she shared on social media. She had posed for several photos on her Facebook page to celebrate the pregnancy. Her sister, Kimberly Ayala told KTSM:
As weeks went by she just got worse and then she went into cardiac respiratory arrest. She could breathe her heart stopped. Knowing she never got to hold her, that was the worst part. She loved her so much we know she did because she gave her life for her.
Her sister, Kimberly, has set up a GoFundMe page to help raise money to support her partner and newborn daughter, Addison.
She paid glowing tribute to her sister, describing her as a beautiful person inside out.
Although she could not hold her baby in her arms, she shows us the love of a mother for her baby. She gave everything for the life of her baby.
It is not clear whether Jaqueline had been vaccinated against Covid-19.
