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The family of a Kentucky woman are heartbroken after her death from COVID-19 just days after her planned wedding date.
Samantha Wendell, 29, had been waiting for her wedding for about two years. She and her fiance, Austin Eskew, got engaged in 2019 and planned their wedding for August 21, according to NBC News.
Wendell and Eskew initially refused to be vaccinated against COVID-19, according to the Louisville Courier-Journal. The couple wanted to start a family soon after their wedding, and Wendell’s colleagues had warned them that vaccines caused infertility – a baseless claim that health departments around the world debunked.
But as the delta variant began to spread throughout the summer, the couple changed their minds about the vaccination. The two have made an appointment to get their pictures by the end of July.
Before she could get the vaccine, Wendell started to feel sick. After returning from a bachelorette party in Nashville, Eskew said she developed a severe cough. The two quickly tested positive for COVID-19, delaying their vaccine appointments.
But as Eskew recovered from the virus at home, Wendell’s condition continued to worsen. She was taken to hospital and on August 16 – five days before her wedding date – she was put on a ventilator, NBC News reports.
Wendell’s mother Jeaneen said her daughter requested a vaccine before she was put on a ventilator.
“It wasn’t going to do any good at this point, obviously,” she told NBC News. “It just weighs on my heart that it could have been easily avoided. “
Doctors struggled to stabilize Wendell and she never regained the ability to breathe on her own. Wendell died on September 10 after her family made the decision to remove her life support.
“The disinformation killed her,” said Maria Vibandor Hayes, a cousin of Wendell who spoke to NBC News. “If we can save more lives and more family lives, then this is the gift she left us.”
Wendell’s mother told NBC her daughter was to be married at the same church in Illinois where she and her husband were married. Instead, the church hosted Wendell’s funeral, about a month after the planned wedding date.
“We’re so heartbroken. It didn’t have to end this way,” Hayes wrote in a Facebook group for COVID-19 survivors earlier this month.
The CDC currently recommends the COVID-19 vaccine for all people 12 years of age and older, including those who are pregnant or trying to get pregnant in the future. The CDC also recommends the vaccine for partners of those trying to conceive.
“Currently, there is no evidence to show that vaccines, including COVID-19 vaccines, cause fertility problems (pregnancy problems) in women or men,” the CDC said.
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