Bride-to-be spent her planned wedding day on a ventilator before dying from COVID-19

A Kentucky man mourns the loss of his 29-year-old fiancee after she spent her planned wedding day on a ventilator before succumbing to a COVID-19 infection that irreversibly damaged his lungs.

Samantha Wendell had graduated from college before starting her new job as a surgical technician. She was engaged to the love of her life, Austin Eskew, 29.

Eskew said her fiance started to feel bad after returning from a bachelorette trip in late July.

“She came back on Sunday, the symptoms started late Monday, Monday night, and then progressed to there,” Eskew told FOX TV Stations.

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Wendell started with a mild cough, according to Eskew, which would get worse over the day. The next day, not only did her cough get worse, but she got hives.

“She had had stress hives before from all the stress of planning the wedding and everything going on. She had had it before and thought it was what it was, but I told her. says, “You know, just to rule it out, if your job is testing, see if they’ll allow you to get tested,” Eskew said.

Wendell ended up testing positive for COVID-19, and according to Eskew, of the 11 women who attended the bachelorette party, she was the only one infected. Eskew was also infected with COVID-19, but said he only suffered from a high fever and was back to normal within days.

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Wendell and Eskew had scheduled dates to get the COVID-19 vaccine before their next wedding on August 21, but after Wendell was infected their plans were derailed.

Eskew said the reason they hadn’t been vaccinated earlier was the deluge of misinformation circulating about the gunfire. While he said he was not entirely sure where Wendell might have seen him, Eskew said his fiance became hesitant after seeing false claims about the COVID vaccine. -19 causing women to lose their fertility.

One of the most common misleading rumors about the COVID-19 vaccine is that it will impact fertility, which experts say is not based on facts and has been repeatedly debunked. The bogus report is believed to have first surfaced on social media and included misinformation about the spike protein associated with the coronavirus.

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The false information claimed that the spike protein was the same as another spike protein called syncitin-1, which is involved in the growth and attachment of the placenta during pregnancy. Rumor had it that the vaccine would force a woman’s body to fight off the spike protein, which would impact fertility.

“The two spike proteins are completely different, and obtaining the COVID-19 vaccine will not affect the fertility of women seeking to become pregnant, including through in vitro fertilization methods,” Drs said. Andrew Satin and Jeanne Sheffield told FOX News in May.

Satin, director of gynecology and obstetrics, and Sheffield, director of maternal-fetal medicine, cited data from the Pfizer-BioNTech trial as further evidence. During the clinical trial, 23 female volunteers became pregnant and the only one to miscarry was in the placebo group.

Their findings echo those of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which currently say there is “no evidence that vaccines, including COVID-19 vaccines, cause fertility problems – problems to try to get pregnant “.

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“At one point I think it came from a friend of hers to be honest, it could have been something she saw on Facebook because it pops up all over there, but it was at About the loss of fertility We wanted to have a family That’s why we were hesitant at first, ”Eskew said.

But with the delta variant causing an increase in the number of cases, the fiancés did not want to jeopardize their pending nuptials, so they decided to move forward with their plans to get the vaccine by scheduling appointments for the. COVID-19 vaccine.

But then Wendell fell ill. She was admitted to the hospital on August 9, according to Eskew.

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“It didn’t really hit me that hard, but she just had a constant cough so she was having a hard time catching her breath, so we decided it was time to go get it checked out,” Eskew said. .

When Wendell arrived at the hospital, health workers found her oxygen level to be dangerously low, so they admitted her for observation overnight. It wasn’t until a day later that doctors diagnosed Wendell with bilateral pneumonia, according to Eskew.

Wendell would later be transferred to a larger hospital where doctors used a ventilator after her condition deteriorated.

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“She started having panic attacks throughout that week and then on the 16th she had so much that she was losing too much oxygen so they had to put her on a ventilator,” Eskew said.

The couple were able to confront each other with the help of hospital staff as Eskew was not allowed to be in the room with her fiance, causing her even more stress and anxiety.

“Then they started doing FaceTime which was awesome, I mean obviously she couldn’t respond but just so I could see her and talk to her I tried to do what I could,” said declared Eskew.

Eventually, Eskew was allowed to visit Wendell in the hospital for short periods. When Wendell finally tested negative for COVID-19, her family and fiance were able to adhere to normal visiting hours.

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Eskew and Wendell’s parents created a schedule to make sure someone was with Wendell for most of her hospital stay, hoping to give her some comfort during an uncertain time and scary.

On September 6, doctors told Eskew and Wendell’s families that she would likely survive her battle with the virus and appeared optimistic, according to Eskew. But a few days later, on September 9, doctors performed a CT scan to see how Wendell was progressing and found she had scars all over her lungs.

“On Thursday they had the CT scan and the scars were all over her lungs and she was still suffering from pneumonia. And at that point there was no chance of her surviving,” Eskew said.

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After receiving the devastating news, Eskew said on September 10 that the ventilator had been removed and Wendell had passed away.

“They let us be in the room so I held her until the last moment,” Eskew said.

Eskew has nothing but fond memories of her late fiancé, saying she was “very caring” and “loved being with people”.

“She didn’t know any strangers, everyone was her friend or they were going to be her friend,” Eskew said with a smile. “She loved her animals and she loved taking care of anyone’s animals, she loved her job, absolutely loved her job. Every minute she could learn something about it, she was okay with trying to do it. whatever she could for her job. ”

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Eskew said that while he was not the type to preach on whether or not to get the COVID-19 vaccine, he saw no reason to postpone it if someone was “on the verge of “to get it.

“Those who are on the fence, especially if they’re in the same position as me, but if someone is on the fence and doesn’t really care somehow, why put it back. see you later, ”Eskew said.

Wendell was buried on September 18.

The family set up a GoFundMe to help with funeral and medical expenses. Donations can be made here.

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Numerous studies have been published in recent months that have found evidence that COVID-19 vaccines offer a high rate of protection against serious illness and death from the novel coronavirus.

Despite some data showing that protection against COVID-19 vaccines has waned under the delta variant, health experts say the protection against hospitalization and death they offer is still substantial. Similar data is reflected in the groundbreaking cases of COVID-19.

A revolutionary case, although rare, is when a person fully vaccinated against the new coronavirus is still infected.

According to CDC data on groundbreaking COVID-19 cases, less than 1% of people who contracted the novel coronavirus despite being vaccinated have been hospitalized or died.

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While hospitalizations and deaths from groundbreaking COVID-19 infections can occur in rare cases, the data underscores how rare such cases are.

As of September 13, the CDC reported that 178 million Americans had been vaccinated against COVID-19. Of these inoculations over the same period, 3,040 patients died from a breakthrough infection and 12,750 were hospitalized.

The majority of groundbreaking COVID-19 cases that resulted in hospitalization or death were in the elderly, 43% of which were women.

“Vaccine breakthrough cases only occur in a small percentage of people vaccinated. To date, no unexpected patterns have been identified in case demographics or vaccine characteristics in people who have reported vaccine breakthrough infections.” , wrote the CDC on its website.

FOX News and Austin Williams contributed to this report. This story was reported in Los Angeles.