By Tim Stelloh - NBC News
An Alabama antique dealer died this month of a "cardiac event" after emergency personnel at his local hospital contacted dozens of intensive care units in three states and were unable to find him a bed amid rising cases of COVID-19, according to his family.
The man named Ray DeMonia, who ran the DeMonia Antiques & Auctions company for four decades,
died on Sept. 1, three days before his 74th birthday,
his family reported in an obituary published this month.
"Ray was a great, great man, loved and respected by many," noted his family.
DeMonia died at a time when COVID-19 cases in the state, which has had one of the lowest vaccination rates in the country, continues to rise.
Ray DeMonia Courtesy
Some Alabama nurses have protested the strenuous working conditions and last month a Mobile doctor said he would stop treating unvaccinated patients.
[Find out here where, when and how you can get vaccinated where you live]
In the obituary,
his family urged people who have not been vaccinated to do so,
"in an effort to free up resources
for non-COVID-19 emergencies
.
"
The United States reaches 41 million people infected with COVID-19
Sept.
12, 202100: 42
"He wouldn't want any other family to go through the same thing," hers said.
DeMonia died at Rush Foundation Hospital in Meridian, Mississippi, after Cullman Regional Medical Center staff contacted
43 intensive care units
and were
unable to find a bed for her.
[Employees of a hospital in New York prefer to quit than get vaccinated: the maternity area goes "on hiatus"]
A spokeswoman for Cullman Hospital, an hour north of Birmingham, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Alabama has one of the highest rates of new COVID-19 cases in the country, with about 541 per 100,000 people testing positive in the past seven days.
In that period, 259 people died, the CDC reported.