I WATCHED MUM DIE ON THE COVID WARD
A daughter pleads: Don’t let this happen to you
ANABEL Sharma held her mum Maria’s hand as they both lay on a Covid ward at Leicester Royal Infirmary not long before Maria died, writes Adrian Troughton.
Now Anabel has spoken out to urge everyone to obey the rules and do all they can to minimise their risk.
She said: “We were so careful about what we did because mum lived with us. I never thought Covid would hit us, but it did. And it could be anyone.”
ANABEL Sharma watched helplessly as her mother Maria died as they both fought Covid-19 on the same intensive care unit.
The 49-year-old was at her 76-year-old mother’s hospital bedside because she was on the same ward at Leicester Royal Infirmary.
Doctors allowed Maria Rico to take off her oxygen mask to say a final farewell to Anabel and her sister Susana, who had been allowed on to the unit in full PPE, reports the Mirror.
Now Anabel, from Whitwick, who had to watch her mother’s funeral on a live video stream, has appealed for people to follow the Covid-19 rules to try to stop the spread of the virus.
“Don’t let this be you,” she pleaded.
“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 would 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 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.
Mother and daughter were taken to the infirmary in 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 a picture of us, then they took mum back to her bay.”
The next day, doctors told Anabel that Maria did not have long to live and wheeled her to her mother’s bedside.
Anabel, a 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 a live stream.
“It was horrendous,” she said. “I felt so alone. Every day I would ask the doctors if I was going to die and they would tell me they did not know.
“I just kept thinking of my three sons and how they would cope without me.”
■ Anabel also tells her story on the Humans of Covid-19 Facebook page.