A Detroit woman died of COVID-19 after giving birth to her son without ever being able to hold her newborn baby.
Erika Becerra became ill with the coronavirus when she was 8 months pregnant, despite following “every rule in the book” on COVID-19 safety, her brother Michael Avilez told CNN’s Anderson Cooper on Tuesday.
Beccera was initially admitted to the hospital in November after having a hard time breathing. After a few days without any signs of recovery, doctors decided to induce her labor. Beccera gave birth to a healthy baby, but was immediately whisked away to be intubated.
She passed away three weeks later on Dec. 3, leaving behind her newborn son, a young daughter and her husband.
“Right after she gave birth to her son, they put her on a tube because her body wasn’t retaining oxygen anymore and after that she wasn’t able to meet her newborn baby,” Avilez said.
Avilez said he hopes his sister’s death will help people take the pandemic seriously.
“You’ve got a lot of people that don’t understand what’s going on,” Avilez told Cooper. “They all think it’s a joke until it happens to them or one of their family members.”
The family has set up a GoFundMe account to help pay for Beccera’s funeral.