By Suzanne Ciechalski - NBC News
A family in Florida mourns the death of a woman from COVID-19 just days after giving birth to their daughter by emergency cesarean section.
The woman, Kristen McMullen,
30
, was hospitalized for coronavirus on July 21, her aunt Melissa Syverson said Thursday.
She was also diagnosed with pneumonia and was sent home after four days, but was hospitalized again on July 26.
McMullen gave birth to their daughter, Summer Reign, by emergency cesarean section on July 27 and was transferred to the intensive care unit.
She was hooked up to a
ventilator last Friday and died the same day
, her family said.
[Follow our coverage of the coronavirus pandemic]
"That first week, honestly, Kristen's main concern was Summer and making sure she was okay," Syverson said.
Summer is healthy and "definitely brings joy" to the family, which is struggling to cope with this loss, Syverson added.
Kristen McMullen, 30, died of COVID-19 just days after giving birth to her daughter, Summer.
Courtesy Melissa Syverson
James Syverson described his niece as a person with clear goals and very close to his family.
She assured that being a mother was one of her goals and that she hoped to form a great family with her husband, Keith, with whom she was three years.
"He never got sick and
we assumed,
like many people, that this would go
away as quickly as it came," he
said.
"Like many younger people - she was only 30 years old - (we thought) that she would overcome it without problems and she would return to take the reins of her life," he added.
[FDA authorizes additional dose of COVID-19 vaccine for the most vulnerable people]
The family would not say whether McMullen had been vaccinated
against COVID-19, but said that regardless of the vaccination status of pregnant women, other people should be careful with them.
"Personally, we believe that whether or not a pregnant woman is vaccinated, or whether or not she wears a mask, we believe that (COVID-19) is at great risk of being fatal to her or her baby," said Melissa Syverson .
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) urged pregnant women to get vaccinated against the disease on Wednesday, as the delta variant continues to rise across the country.
Only about 23% of pregnant women have received at least one dose of the vaccine, according to CDC data.
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James Syverson said the last time he and his wife saw McMullen was last month at their baby shower in Florida.
There he hugged his niece and told her how proud he was of her, he said.
"I gave her a big hug and told her that I loved her," he
said.
"I've been thinking about it almost non-stop and
how so many people don't have the ability to tell their loved ones that they love them
and how much they care about them, and I'm very grateful that I was able to do so," he said.
