Unvaccinated woman, 30, gave birth in coma, dies of COVID-19

Husband says he can’t afford burial

A Wendy’s manager is asking for donations to cover his late wife’s funeral and burial costs after she died of COVID-19 weeks after delivering their stillborn baby while she was in a coma, according to a news report.

Ashley Smith, 30, of Ormond Beach wasn’t vaccinated when she fell ill with the virus and was hospitalized on August 8, the Daytona Beach News-Journal reported. She died Sept. 10. Pregnant women with COVID-19 are 15 times more likely to die, 14 times more likely to need to be intubated, and 22 times more likely to have preterm birth than those who are uninfected, according to a study published last month in JAMA Network Open.

Chris Smith created a GoFundMe hoping that others will pay for Ashley’s funeral and burial so he won’t have to have her cremated.

On top of losing his wife and their unborn child, and dealing with thousands of dollars in sudden expenses, Chris has also had to endure the grief of having his 8-year-old stepson, Gabriel, move out of his apartment and into the home of the boy’s biological father.

Chris helped raise the boy from infancy.

“I became his dad. I mean, I was there to see every moment of his life,” Chris told the newspaper. “It’s kind of heartbreaking.”

More young and healthy pregnant people are ending up hospitalized on ventilators, delivering babies prematurely and sometimes dying from COVID19 during the delta-fueled spike in cases.

Doctors across the country are reporting this trend, not seen in previous surges, largely in the South but also in states like California and Washington. As of Aug. 14, 76.2% of pregnant women were unvaccinated.

“I have not seen risks like this,” said Linda Eckert, professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Washington.