Haley Mulkey Richardson.Photo: GoFundMe
An Alabama family is mourning the loss of Haley Mulkey Richardson and her unborn child after they bothdied from COVID-19.
Richardson, 32, was a labor and delivery nurse at a hospital just over the border in Pensacola, Florida. She and her husband, Jordan Richardson, lived in Theodore along with their 2-year-old daughter Katie, and were excitedly awaiting the arrival of their second child, a girl.
Haley had put off getting vaccinated against COVID-19 out of concerns about her pregnancy, Jordan said.
(The Centers for Disease Control and OB-GYN groupsstrongly advise people who are pregnant, breastfeeding or trying to conceive to get vaccinatedagainst COVID-19, as studies have confirmed that the vaccines are safe and effective for those groups.)
At the end of July, Haley, who had no preexisting conditions other than her pregnancy, contracted the virus and her condition quickly worsened. Researchers have found that COVID-19 significantly increases the risk of pregnancy complications such as premature and stillborn births and miscarriages.
“She was home sick for about a week and then her heart rate went up,” Jason Whatley, a family friend whose wife was Haley’s maid of honor,told AL.com. “I guess that’s something they look for.”
Haley Mulkey Richardson with her daughter Katie and husband Jordan.GoFundMe
“It’s really hard,” her mother, Julie Mulkey, told AL.com. “It’s hard to accept, it’s hard to face. We’re glad she’s not suffering anymore.”
Whatley said the family and doctors did everything they could to help Haley.
“They wished she’d been vaccinated, but outside of that, when she got sick, they did all the right things. And she still died,” Whatley said. He and his wife haveset up a GoFundMe pageto help support the Richardsons.
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“Truly, we’ve never had this number of pregnant women in my ICU,” said Dr. Steve Stigler, director of UAB Hospital’s Medical Intensive Care Unit in a statement Friday,AL.com reported.
Mulkey said that Haley had gone back and forth on whether she should get vaccinated.
“We talked about it several times,” Mulkey said. “She said at one point that she had about made up her mind to do it. And she just… she just couldn’t quite get it done. If she had had the information that has come out since this happened to her, yes, she would have gotten it.”
Mulkey and her other daughter have now gotten their first vaccine dose, in light of Haley’s death, and are urging others to do the same.
“I had held off on getting my own shot,” Mulkey said. “Now I have done that, the second one’s coming up later this week. My older daughter is the same way. And we have a couple across the street from us who are expecting, and one afternoon I just barreled over there, and I said ‘look, if you haven’t done it, go get it done.’ "
“It’s absolutely had a big bearing on our opinion,” she added. “Watching what my precious daughter went through was indescribably hard.”
As information about thecoronavirus pandemicrapidly changes, PEOPLE is committed to providing the most recent data in our coverage. Some of the information in this story may have changed after publication. For the latest on COVID-19, readers are encouraged to use online resources from theCDC,WHOandlocal public health departments.PEOPLE has partnered with GoFundMeto raise money for the COVID-19 Relief Fund, a GoFundMe.org fundraiser to support everything from frontline responders to families in need, as well as organizations helping communities. For more information or to donate, clickhere.
source: people.com
