By Minyvonne Burke - NBC News
A pregnant nurse
wanted to wait to get vaccinated
against COVID-19 because she was concerned about how it would affect her baby.
Now, her husband is trying to raise awareness in the population after the coronavirus claimed the lives of his wife and the girl he carried in her womb.
"It's not easy," Jordan Richardson told the Mobile, Alabama WKRG station.
"She just loved everyone," he said.
Haley Mulkey Richardson of Theodore, Alabama,
died
of the coronavirus on August 20,
two days after her baby died.
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Jordan Richardson said the girl was due to be born in November and that they planned to name her Ryleigh Beth.
Their oldest daughter, Katie, is 2 years old.
"I was excited. I already have a girl and everyone asked me when we were trying to have another child: 'Do you want a boy? Do you want a boy?'
And I told them: 'No, I want another girl, "he explained.
"I love her very much and I was very excited when I knew that it was what we were going to have," he said.
Haley Richardson, 32, contracted the virus in late July and was hospitalized in early August when her symptoms began to worsen, her husband said.
In the end, she had to be admitted to the intensive care unit, where she died.
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The man said his wife
wanted to wait to get vaccinated
against the coronavirus because she wasn't sure how it would affect her pregnancy.
"We were concerned that there might be complications from that to have a baby and once she got pregnant, so she didn't get vaccinated," she explained.
Shortly before her death, the woman posted a message on the social network Facebook about her unborn daughter and said she was
praying for a miracle
.
Pregnant nurse Haley Mulkey Richardson and her unborn baby died from complications caused by COVID-19.
Via GoFundMe / eyJpdiI6IngwXC84Sk40R2J2anpxclNsU1g0cTB3PT0iLCJ2YWx1ZSI6Ikl2Z2ZBclY1bEtuSkJhYkJTOHpydnJ1QmdXalpxdlNDUGhJK2Rzb01VWVgyUXY5bE1CblNJM0lLQTR0bXRPN2YiLCJtYWMiOiJjMTM0YTBhYWNmMThmODAyZjgxYjZhYzJiMDc4ZGU4NGQzZjEyZGQ5OGE4NzBlMGU0ZmZlZDBkMGNiNGEyMjM4In0 =
"Here in the dark, in the wee hours of the morning, it's so easy to pretend that this was all just a nightmare or that I'm just here in this hospital bed because of my own coronavirus problems. And not because something is wrong. wrong with my sweet girl whom I thought I was protecting in my own belly, "he wrote.
"I know the forecast and I know the reality. And although a part of me begins to become aware of what is happening, another continues to believe that God is still the God of miracles and that he is in control over everything. I hope and pray for miracles, but having said that I also pray that his will be done. If there has ever been a time to ask that something be no longer in my hands and instead be in his, it is now, "he said.
Earlier this month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) urged all pregnant women to get vaccinated, as hospitals in the most critical points of infection in the United States observed a worrying number of unvaccinated future mothers seriously ill with COVID-19.
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According to data from the CDC, pregnant women who have not been vaccinated are at a higher risk of becoming seriously ill with coronavirus and having pregnancy complications.
"
Vaccines are safe and effective
, and it has never been more urgent to increase the number of people vaccinated, as we are faced with the highly contagious delta variant and we see the serious effects of COVID-19 among unvaccinated pregnant people", Rochelle Walensky, director of the CDC, said in a statement.
Richardson, for his part, indicated that
if his wife had known of the possible tragic end
, she would have "defended" the vaccine.
