JoEllen Engelbart (Image: Facebook/Jackson County Prosecutor’s Office)
A first-time mother died of COVID-19 just four days after giving birth to a baby boy in Missouri in the United States.
JoEllen Engelbart, a 32-year-old assistant prosecutor for Jackson County, succumbed to the disease on Jan. 2, as per ABC affiliate KMBC on the same day.
Her and husband Matt’s first child, a son named Ross, was born three months premature. Engelbart’s brother, Larry Flanagan, later pointed out that she was unable to even hold baby Ross before she died.
“The fact that she never got to hold him is devastating,” he told Fox-affiliate WDAF.
“Her whole life was the last few months dedicated to make sure Ross gets into this world,” he added. “That’s all she cared about.”
One of her colleagues and good friends, Kelly Conlon, has since set up a crowdfunding page for Engelbart’s husband and son.
Conlon assured that despite the tragic loss, baby Ross was “a fighter just like his mother and will spend the next few months getting healthy to come home.” The newborn is currently being tended to in a neonatal intensive care unit.
The fundraiser has already received over $116,800 from more than 1,500 donors as of this writing. The amount will be directly handed over to Matt to help cover the hospitalization of his late wife and newborn son. Ryan Arcadio /ra
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