Florida woman with coronavirus went from being diagnosed to dying in her daughter's arms within days

Neonatal transmission of coronavirus, possible according to study 2:05

(CNN) - Hortencia Laurens was about to turn 70 when she was diagnosed with coronavirus on July 2. Her grandson, Diego Fereira, told CNN that his grandmother spent her last days browsing the Florida health system with a rapidly progressing illness.

"My grandmother was alone, she was scared," said Fereira.

More than 3.5 million people have been diagnosed with covid-19 in the United States since the pandemic began, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. And Florida has been hit particularly hard.

The state has reported more cases of coronavirus than most countries in the world, leaving Florida hospitals overwhelmed.

Just days after her diagnosis, Laurens died of the virus, wrapped in her daughter's arms, on her way back to the hospital.

• Hasty reopens, non-mandatory mask use and carefree youth: the reasons Florida is at the epicenter of the US coronavirus pandemic

Hortencia Laurens, 69, died within days of coronavirus.

"Everyone is afraid"

Her family was preparing for their annual trip July 6 to the west coast of Florida, but a week before the meeting, Laurens began to feel unwell, Fereira said.

The illness started with stomach symptoms, but Laurens' daughters soon noticed that she was very weak and was saying inconsistencies, Fereira said.

Late Wednesday, July 1, her daughter took her to the Memorial Hospital in Pembroke Pines, Florida, Fereira said. Due to virus precautions, Ferreira's aunt was unable to stay in the hospital with Laurens, who had underlying conditions such as diabetes and did not speak English.

In the early hours of Thursday morning, the hospital called the family to tell them that Laurens had been diagnosed with coronavirus, Fereira said. On that hospital phone call, Laurens yelled at her family that she was scared.

According to a medical document provided by Fereira, she was discharged around 3 am Thursday with instructions to pick up some medical formulas and call her doctor for a two-day follow-up consultation. But her family had no way to contact her directly, because she didn't have a cell phone with her, and it was 6 in the morning, before the hospital told them they could pick her up, she said.

The hospital system said it was unable to comment on Laurens' specific case, but that admission decisions are based on a number of factors and the physician's evaluation.

That Thursday night, still feeling unwell, her daughter took her to another location at the Miramar Memorial Hospital, Fereira said. They again diagnosed her with covid-19 and prescribed new medications for her symptoms, according to documents provided by Fereira.

Although hospital documents instructed him to schedule a follow-up visit around July 4, Fereira said the doctor's offices were closed on that holiday and that he had an appointment earlier that week.

But Laurens did not make it to that day, Fereira said.

Laurens' daughters cared for her over the weekend. She had a bad day on Saturday, with fever, chills and body aches, but seemed to improve on Sunday, Fereira said. Then, on Sunday night until Monday morning, he developed chest pains, was having trouble breathing and sweated profusely, Fereira's mother and aunt told him.

Fereira says she woke up Monday morning with a text message from her father at 2 a.m. saying that Laurens was being taken to the hospital in an ambulance with her daughters.

In her aunt's arms, Hortencia Laurens, Fereira's grandmother, lost her pulse in the ambulance, she said. An emergency doctor looked at her, frozen, and her aunt told Fereira that she had to shake him to make him react.

"It just shows, everyone is afraid," he said.

Medical staff tried to revive her at the hospital, but she failed, Fereira said.

Fereira lives near the Pembroke hospital, where her grandmother was rushed in her final moments, and said she relives her death every day.

"I hear ambulances going to that hospital once every hour or two," he said. "To think about it, that my mother had to see my poor grandmother in an ambulance tied to life-saving devices ... it's so cool."

And also on the days when he hears ambulances bringing more patients to the state hospital with increasing cases, Fereira says he is frustrated at seeing people without masks as if nothing is happening.

• Florida battles increasing coronavirus infections and saturating hospital capacity

Fereira with his wife and daughter, and his grandmother Hortencia Laurens (on the left).

The caregiver and matriarch came to the US in search of better medical care

On Wednesday, the family gathered in a small group for their funeral. Most had to join online because many of those who called Laurens mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, sister, aunt and friend live in Colombia or Venezuela.

Wherever they are, they are all mourning for a matriarch, Fereira said. She always had the best advice and had a natural or emotional remedy for anyone who felt bad or bad, she said.

All the money she earned as a personal caregiver at home for older people, Fereira said, she sent to her sons and daughters who are dealing with the pandemic in Colombia and Venezuela, from where she migrated in the early 2000s in hopes of a more comfortable life and better medical care, Fereira said.

"The worse it gets, the worse it will be in hospitals"

“I am very grateful for those people but at the same time I feel that all the medical services are so overwhelmed right now. Our medical professionals need some kind of support, ”he said.

The Memorial Healthcare System, which includes the Pembroke and Miramar locations where Laurens was cared for, said in a statement that the hospital system is unable to comment on patient care due to HIPAA regulations.

“As a public health system, Memorial neither allows nor has allowed the availability of beds to determine care decisions, a policy that we hope to continue despite the increase in covid-19 cases. Admission to a hospital is a doctor-driven decision based on many factors, including the patient's vital signs and clinical presentation in the emergency room, "said the hospital system. "Statewide, approximately 20% of covid-19 positive patients visit emergency rooms. Ultimately, state data shows that approximately 11% of people with covid-19 are admitted to hospitals. "

Fereira hopes that the story will encourage people to take further steps to reduce the spread of the virus and support medical staff as restrictions increase and cases increase.

"The worse it gets, the worse it is going to be in hospitals, and things like this will continue to happen," he said.

- CNN's Ben Norbitz contributed to this report.

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