A mother hasn’t left her daughter’s side for almost two weeks after the teen tested positive for COVID-19 and is now in a coma.
Agnes Velasquez has been living on the hospital couch as her 15-year-old daughter Paulina fights for her life in an ICU room at Broward Health Medical Center, she divulged to CNN via video chat.
“I came with my daughter and I’m not going anywhere,” Velasquez said.
When Paulina first starting showing symptoms, the teen informed her mother she couldn’t breathe. Velasquez then rushed to her daughter’s side but didn’t think to put her mask on first. Velasquez went on to test positive for COVID-19 days after.
While Paulina had not yet been vaccinated, Velasquez had and credits her minor symptoms to the vaccine.
“I most likely got it from her,” Velasquez told CNN. A GoFundMe campaign set up to help with Paulina’s medical expenses revealed she tested positive on July 11. “Covid rapidly altered her life,” the page said. “Within days, she required a ventilator and was placed in a medically induced coma.”
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Velasquez admitted she is getting her sons vaccinated soon — something her daughter had wished for once she got sick. Paulina’s older brother Tomas told CBS 12, “The last phone call was the day before and she wanted to go the next day to get the vaccine and in the blink of an eye, this happened.”
Velasquez told the outlet her daughter has been slowly making improvements and said there is the hope of taking her off the ventilator for good.
“Today, actually a very good day for me, as I was praying for her holding her hand she started moving,” the mom said.
She continued on, saying: “I don’t wish this on anyone, even my worst enemy, to go through something that I have experienced every single day in this ICU with my daughter.”
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Velasquez believes that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis should “encourage people to take vaccines, to wear masks, to apply the (Covid) guidelines.”
At the time of writing, Florida recorded 17,589 new cases of COVID-19, marking its fourth-highest spike on a single day since the pandemic began, per the Miami Herald.
The CDC updated its nationwide mask guidance on Tuesday, stating that in areas where COVID-19 is surging, all people (including those who have been fully vaccinated) should wear masks indoors.
“In recent days I have seen new scientific data from recent outbreak investigations showing that that Delta variant behaves uniquely differently from past strains of the virus that cause Covid-19,” CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky revealed to reporters at a news briefing. “This new science is worrisome and unfortunately warrants an update to our recommendation.”