Kiwi dies from Covid
Former football writer succumbs to virus in Colombia, after weeks on a ventilator
Well-known former NZ football journalist Dave Petraska has died having spent four weeks on a ventilator in a Colombian hospital after catching Covid-19.
And his mother is pleading with people to get vaccinated in memory of her son, who was only a week from getting his first jab of AstraZeneca when he was admitted to hospital.
Petraska, 56, had been battling the virus and later pneumonia in the South American country, which had been his home for seven years. A prolific football writer in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Petraska died on Wednesday.
It comes after Kiwi granddad John Murray, 74, died in a Bangkok hospital this month after contracting the virus.
On June 7, Petraska posted on social media thanking people for their birthday wishes two days earlier. “It was especially nice to hear from y’all as I’ve been sick for a week now with some kind of nonCovid related mystery illness that no one’s been able to put the pieces together yet.”
A Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade spokesperson con- firmed the death of a New Zealander in Colombia but gave no further details, citing privacy issues.
His mother Abie Petraska told the Herald on Sunday her grief was still fresh. “You don’t expect to bury your children do you, you expect them to bury you. It is a dreadful, dreadful disease when it does this, but the hospital and doctors in Colombia . . . did everything they could to save him.”
Abie called her son on his 56th birthday and he was clearly unwell. Petraska went to his doctor to be tested for Covid19, which came back negative. “I think it must have been a false negative or they just got it before [the virus] hit him and he just went off a cliff, it just absolutely attacked all the organs in his body,” Abie said.
Two days later, Petraska was on a ventilator in hospital before being sedated. But four weeks later, he died.
In the late 80s and early 90s, Petraska was a well-known scribe for Soccer Express — thought to be New Zealand’s last football-focused weekly newspaper. He then worked in sports betting and was renowned for his meticulous record-keeping and statistics knowledge.
Abie was hopeful others would realise the importance of being vaccinated after her son’s passing.
“My mantra and my message is to have the vaccine in memory of Dave.”