INQUIRER.net Stock Photo
A 33-year-old mother succumbed to COVID-19 just 18 days after giving birth to a healthy baby boy in Detroit in the United States.
Erika Becerra contracted the coronavirus last month, as per CBS-affiliate KCBS on Dec. 4. She had no underlying conditions and was already eight months pregnant at the time.
As her condition worsened, doctors decided to induce her labor on Nov. 15. She then welcomed her second child, a son named Diego. However, the disease persisted and her health continued to decline.
“She had a normal labor,” her brother Michael Avilez told the news outlet, “she gave birth to her son but didn’t get to hold him because right after she gave birth, that’s when they put in the tube and then from there she just started declining.”
After realizing that she was not recovering, Avilez and their family rushed to Detroit from Los Angeles to be with Becerra. He recalled that she teared up as they prayed for her during her last moments.
“All my sister wanted was the best for everybody and she cared about lives,” Avilez said while holding back tears himself. “She didn’t deserve to go through what she went through.”
Despite their family’s tragic loss, Avilez and more of Becerra’s loved ones hope her death reminds others that the pandemic is still a serious problem.
“It’s is a real thing. I don’t know why people don’t comprehend that,” Avilez said in the report.
Becerra is survived by her husband, their 1-year-old daughter and their newborn son. Following her untimely death, her loved ones have set up a crowdfunding page to help her family cover funeral expenses.
The crowdfunding effort has received more than $95,000 (P4.5 million) from over 2,500 donors as of this writing. Additional donations will be used to provide for her children’s needs. Ryan Arcadio /ra
RELATED STORIES:
How first-time mothers are giving birth, rearing babies in the new normal
6-month-old baby with heart and lung problems beats COVID-19