Healthy mother, 33, who got Covid days before giving birth dies without ever holding her newborn
Vanessa Gonzalez was banned from being close to daughter Heaven to try and keep the infant safe - but died without ever getting to hold her youngest daughter
A healthy 33 year-old who fell seriously-ill with Covid days before giving birth died before she got to holding her newborn daughter. Vanessa Gonzalez, 33, fell ill with coronavirus in November, and had her baby taken from her as soon as she gave birth, to try and stop the infant contracting the virus.
Vanessa, from Whittier in California, was discharged from the hospital soon after, and begged to see her baby, named Heaven. Her husband Alfonso reminded her that it was unsafe to do so. He said: ‘She was very sick. She told me when we were driving home, “I want the baby to be in the room with me.” And I said “no Vanessa, you can’t.”‘
Alfonso says Vanessa had no underlying conditions, and that he expected her to recover. But she fell seriously-ill after struggling to breathe the following day, and was rushed back to hospital in an ambulance.
Vanessa suffered a heart attack and severe brain damage. She was put on a ventilator at UCLA Medical Center in Westwood, and remained there in isolation for a month until her death on December 14.
Alfonso said afterwards: ‘The hardest part for me through this is she didn’t get to hold her baby.’
The widower is now raising Heaven and the baby’s brother’s Joshua, seven, and Ruben, 11, as a single father.
He says his young family has been devastated by Vanessa’s death, but that he is determined to try and stay strong for his sons.
Alfonso told KTLA: ‘We cried together but at the same time they knew mom was home with God, that she can breathe now.’
A GoFundMe page has been set up to help Vanessa’s family