mum dies after nursing son with virus
FORMER TEACHER’S OTHER BOY IN HOSPITAL BATTLING DISEASE
A MUCH-LOVED mum has died just days after developing coronavirus symptoms – having helped her son battle the disease.
Tributes have poured in for community volunteer Linda Tuppen, who lost her fight for life five days after she began to feel unwell.
The 66-year-old had been caring for her son Rob, who contracted COVID-19 after returning from Krakow, Poland, before falling ill herself.
Linda began complaining of a chest infection on Monday, March 23. Her symptoms escalated to pain in her sinuses and she stayed in bed all day the following Thursday and Friday.
Software engineer Rob, of Astley Bridge, Bolton, was so concerned for his mother he called 111.
But Linda, a former teacher and nursery nurse who was well known as the vice chairman of Astley Bridge Neighbourhood Watch, refused to speak to them and said she just wanted to sleep. Tragically, he went to check on her the next morning and found that she had died.
Rob, 28, said: “I was in a panic, she was just lay there, and I shouted ‘mum, mum,’ but she didn’t answer. I was doing chest compressions until the ambulance came. I was still in the room when he came over and said she was gone. It’s devastating, we lost our father in 2008, so we’re pretty much on our own now.
“She was a kind, loving lady who adored me and James and would have done anything for us.
“She always used to say that we are were her lives. She would do anything for anyone.”
Linda’s youngest son James, 23, was admitted to hospital with coronavirus on Sunday. Rob revealed his mother had suffered with asthma before she passed away.
He said: “This is serious. This is not a joke, this could happen to anyone. They were fine when I came back, but then I got ill, and they’ve picked it up off me because my mum was looking after me while I was ill. She was putting a cloth over her mouth but it obviously didn’t work.”
At its peak, Rob described feeling so exhausted by coronavirus he would almost black out walking from his bed to his door. He said: “Your temperature is sky high, so you’re constantly freezing cold and shivering, then other times you’re basically roasting hot and you have to take your coat off.
“You have a really high fever and I was constantly freezing cold in bed or roasting to the point where I just had to take all my clothes off because I was that hot.
“The cough is really bad, when you’re coughing you feel like you can’t stop. Your body aches and even the smallest of tasks, like going to the toilet, is one of the hardest things you can do. It got to the point where I was really dehydrated and I couldn’t eat for a week. And because I wasn’t eating, when I stood up I felt like I was going to pass out.
“I would have to run from the toilet to my room, which is about five steps, because I felt like I was going to black out.”
Rob said James remains in hospital on oxygen but is recovering well. He said: “He had some breakfast and lunch yesterday.
“I don’t know when they’ll discharge him. He’s gone back on oxygen now because his levels weren’t right when he wasn’t on it.
“He said his cough is still there but it’s not persistent any more.
“He’s feeling okay at the moment and he had some dinner before. I’m just happy he’s in the right place and getting the care that he needs to get better so he can come home and we can deal with it together.”
A fundraising page has been set up to help Rob and James. Go to https://www.gofundme.com/ f/1yq51vrzk0
She was a kind, loving lady who adored me and James and would have done anything for us Son Rob