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A 24-year-old Georgian who contracted COVID-19 and required a double lung transplant, and who remains hospitalized, expressed regret that he was not vaccinated against the virus, which has so far killed more than 607,000 Americans.
Blake Bargatze had told his parents he was postponing receiving a COVID-19 vaccine because he was unsure of its possible side effects, WSB-TV reported in Atlanta.
“He wanted to wait a few years to see, you know, if there were any side effects or whatever,” said Paul Nuclo, his stepfather. “As soon as he got to the hospital, however, he said he wished he had received the vaccine.”
Bargatze was the only member of her family to be vaccinated, her mother Cheryl Nuclo told Fox 5 Atlanta. Once hospitalized, however, he requested to be vaccinated.
“The day before his intubation, he wanted it,” Nuclo said. “So it was a little too late then.”
Bargatze, who had no pre-existing medical conditions and suffered extended intensive care stays in hospitals in three different states in the past three months, believes he contracted COVID-19 during an April visit to Florida.
“He called me that Friday when he got the results,” Bargatze’s mother told WSB-TV, “and he said,“ Mom, you’re going to be mad. I have COVID. ‘ “
A GoFundMe page created by Bargatze’s friends is raising funds to help cover his medical bills.
“He was initially admitted to St. Mary’s Intensive Care Unit in West Palm Beach, FL on April 10, then was airlifted to Piedmont Atlanta Hospital on April 24 to be placed on ECMO,” the GoFundMe page states. , referring to an extracorporeal. membrane oxygenation machine. “Many complications arose during his hospital stay, causing extensive damage to his lungs, requiring a double lung transplant to survive. Blake was transferred to the University of Maryland Medical Center on June 12. He remains on a ventilator and ECMO while awaiting a lung transplant. “
Thanks to the spread of the Delta variant of COVID-19, the number of new cases has increased nationwide by 109% in the past two weeks. Deaths from the disease, which had fallen as more Americans were vaccinated against it, also began to rise as vaccination rates stagnated.
Bargatze’s mother said her son wanted vaccine skeptics to learn of what happened to him and get vaccinated against COVID-19.
“Maybe if some people were on the fence a bit and swaying, he wants them to see what could be the extreme of what can happen,” she told WSB. “Don’t use a scare tactic – but it can happen.”
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