Dr. Azaret: About 10% of people will say "no" to the covid-19 vaccine 1:49
(CNN) —
A 5-year-old boy had just finished his first day of kindergarten when he saw his young mother collapse and take her last breath.
A 13-year-old girl has suffered from panic attacks since the death of her father.
A 17-year-old must face adulthood without his idol.
More than 202,000 American children have lost one or both parents to Covid-19, according to estimates by Imperial College London.
And the number of children deprived of their parents continues to grow.
While life in America may look more like it was before Covid-19, the disease still claims hundreds of lives every day, including young parents who probably never imagined letting their children grow up without them.
Here's what some children and families who have lost young parents to the pandemic want everyone else to know.
A new single mother and 3 grieving children face an uncertain future
Aurora Dominguez, left, and her sister Laila loved going to the park and riding bikes with their dad, Benny.
Now, Laila has to juggle grief and she has more responsibilities after the loss of her father.
Laila Domínguez never thought she would have to grow up so fast.
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When her parents contracted Covid-19 last winter, the 13-year-old helped care for her two younger siblings and her mother, who was seriously ill with violent chills.
"The chills were bad. I was shaking like I was in Antarctica or something," said the girl from Troy, Wisconsin.
Her mother, Amanda Nelson, felt she had been hit by a train.
"It was hard to even get up and move around," the 42-year-old said.
But "I couldn't go to the hospital because I was the only father at home."
The children's father, Benny Domínguez, was already hospitalized with covid-19 and in much worse condition.
The 43-year-old, who loved cycling with his children and playing with them in the park, was intubated and could no longer breathe on his own.
Benny Domínguez and Amanda Nelson were together for 14 years.
During that time, Amanda said, Benny never got sick, until he contracted covid-19.
On January 10, when Dominguez's condition became serious, Nelson faced a harrowing choice: try to see his longtime partner one last time or keep his children, ages 13, 9 and 4, who couldn't. Go to the hospital.
"It was really hard to explain to the kids because they weren't allowed to go up there because of their age. So no one got to say goodbye," Nelson said.
"I didn't go because I had to be here for the kids. I couldn't leave them because I knew what was going on... They knew they were going to lose their father."
To Laila, the nightmare didn't seem real.
"I was in shock, disbelief and sadness. Sometimes, I'm still in shock," Laila said.
Sometimes "it gets really, really dark. And sometimes it's just too much for me."
Benny Dominguez was a doting father who "saved every kid's schoolwork and artwork," said his partner Amanda Nelson.
"He was so proud of them."
His family's home, which used to be filled with his father's boisterous laughter, is now eerily quiet.
And the pain is now exacerbated by anxiety about the future.
Dominguez was a stay-at-home dad caring for Laila, 9-year-old Aurora, and 4-year-old Benny, who has special needs.
Nelson juggled bartending and waitressing to support the family.
But Nelson has been unable to work since the death of his partner.
She has been overwhelmed by her own grief as she cares for three broken children alone.
"I barely manage and live off what I have saved," he said.
Nelson only has savings for a few more months, he said.
Soon, she will have to find a job.
A study estimates that 1.5 million children lost their parents or grandparents due to covid-19
And 13-year-old Laila will likely take on more responsibilities, including caring for her brother and sister.
Her last experience caring for her traumatized siblings sent her into a panic attack.
"It's definitely been stressful for me. I can't explain it," Laila said.
But since her father's death, Laila has gained a powerful new skill: the ability to stand up to stalkers who make fun of her for wearing a mask.
Before, Laila tried to ignore such teasing.
Now, she responds with a painfully blunt response: "My dad died."
Some bullies were stunned and really learned from her unexpected response, Laila said.
She hopes more children will learn from her story and take covid-19 seriously.
"What I would like them to know about Covid is how dangerous it is ... and to be more aware of what they say."
A 5-year-old boy witnessed his young mother collapse
Tina Owens' latest selfie was selected as the 24-year-old's obituary photo, her mother said.
As a four-time cancer survivor, Katie Klosterman always thought she would be the one to worry about Covid-19, not her healthy and spirited 24-year-old daughter, Tina Owens.
But during the height of the surge in delta cases, when more young people were being hospitalized, Owens collapsed on the living room floor of his Texas apartment.
The only other person at home was Owens' 5-year-old son, Tye.
He had just finished his first day of kindergarten.
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"Knowing that his last sight of his mother is stuff coming out of his nose and mouth... it breaks my heart," Klosterman said.
Owens told his son to go find his neighbor, a certified nursing assistant.
The neighbor ran in, called 911 and began chest compressions, but to no avail.
Owens died at 6:44 pm That night, Tye was taken to Child Protective Services.
Tye Owens was 5 years old when he saw his mother, Tina, collapse.
She died at the age of 24.
When Klosterman learned of her daughter's death a few hours later, she took the next flight to San Antonio to fly her grandson to Florida.
"When I got there the next day and went to pick him up, I sat him down and explained that mom is in heaven," Klosterman said.
"You can't see her or touch her like me. But she is here. She is always close to you," the grandmother told the boy.
"It's okay to be sad. It's okay to cry."
Covid-19 took not only Tye's mother, but also their plans for a new life for them.
Despite the challenges of becoming a teen mom, Owens excelled in school and was well on her way to launching the career of her dreams.
"She was actually a full-time physical therapy student, a 4.0 student," Klosterman said.
"She absolutely loved it. She was keeping her life going."
Klosterman said her daughter has also pledged to get vaccinated against Covid-19.
She but she got sick before she was fully vaccinated.
They lost loved ones to covid-19.
Then they heard back from them
"You don't expect a 24-year-old to die," Klosterman said.
Owens was an avid TikTok user and recorded many videos.
Klosterman now shares her daughter's TikTok videos with her grandson.
"I'm trying to make sure he remembers his voice," he said.
"I'll reproduce them for him so she feels more like she's alive for him."
But raising a covid orphan can be an immense challenge.
Tye, now 6, sometimes talks about traumatic details like "things coming out of mom's nose and mouth."
Klosterman suppresses her own grief and doesn't allow herself to cry until Tye goes to sleep, she said.
And she has had to go from being a pampering grandmother to a father figure who can be authoritative, which can be difficult for a child to accept.
For others who are suddenly raising covid orphans, Klosterman advises getting counseling for every member of the family and parenting classes for grandparents like her.
"A lot of parenting roles have changed since we've been raising our kids," Klosterman said.
"And as a grandfather, now you're doing it all over again."
An emergency medical technician who was on the front lines of the pandemic will not see his son follow in his footsteps
Connor Luensman said he always looked up to his father, James, and shared the same athletic and career goals.
While many teenagers try to separate themselves from their parents, Connor Luensman couldn't get enough of his father, James.
Like his father, Connor became a wrestling star in high school, even making varsity his freshman year in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
They also shared a passion for helping others.
James proudly served his community as an Emergency Medical Technician (EMT).
Connor has signed up for an EMT program for the next year.
His 10-year-old daughter died of covid-19.
Less than 24 hours after her funeral, she was fighting misinformation at a school board meeting.
"I always wanted to be in the medical field, yes," said Connor, now 17.
"I was surrounded by it my whole life. My dad did it since I was born. So it seemed natural to me."
But James will never see his son fulfill that dream.
In October 2020, just weeks before healthcare workers were eligible to get vaccinated, James Luensman fell ill with covid-19.
Even when seriously ill, Luensman hoped to recover, get vaccinated and get back to helping patients as soon as possible.
"He didn't want others to feel the same way he did," Connor said.
Like his father James, Conner Luensman became a star high school wrestler and plans to be an EMT.
But Luensman's condition worsened.
Connor remembers his last conversation with his lifelong idol.
He told her not to give up, and that she loved him.
James Luensman died on October 30, 2020. He was 43 years old.
A few months later, the first day Connor was able to get vaccinated, he went and got a shot along with his mother Sallie Luensman.
"I wanted to do it for my dad because he never got a chance to do it," Connor said.
"It almost felt like he was there."
Connor has now received three doses of the covid-19 vaccine, with no major side effects.
That's surprising because Connor had always been allergic to vaccines.
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“So every time she gets a vaccine, we always have to give her a high dose of antibiotics and a high dose of steroids,” said Sallie Luensman.
But with the covid-19 injections "it was the first vaccine that he never had a reaction to."
The Luenmans take comfort in the knowledge that their tragedy has inspired others to get vaccinated.
"Other family members and other friends of ours got vaccinated specifically for James, in his honor, because we all know and have seen how traumatic it can be to lose someone who has made a difference," said Sallie Luensman.
Connor wants everyone, including children, to understand the importance of getting vaccinated against Covid-19, he said.
"It's not just about you," he said.
"It's about protecting everyone else."
A little girl thought her daddy bear was getting better.
It was not so
After spending 81 days hospitalized with covid-19, Robert Barrios was reunited with his daughter Jessica in 2020. But his health deteriorated again.
For as long as she can remember, 13-year-old Jessica Barrios and her father had been inseparable.
She often dreamed of celebrating milestones with her father, Julio "Robert" Barrios.
His Sweet 16 celebration, his first time behind the wheel of a car.
To walk her down the aisle on her wedding day.
But Robert won't be there for any of those events.
He fell ill with covid-19 in June 2020 and was hospitalized for 81 days.
After being released, he battled Covid for more than a year at his home in Seneca, South Carolina.
Persistent symptoms included shortness of breath due to damaged lungs, extreme fatigue, memory problems, and lack of energy.
"Not being able to do even the simplest housework," said his wife, Summer Barrios.
"Staying up long enough to do the dishes or even bend down to get clothes out of the dryer or take a shower at times was just debilitating for him, he felt like he had a bad case of the flu."
Robert's health took one last devastating turn on March 22, when he died at the age of 49.
His obituary said that he died of a "massive heart attack caused by complications of covid 19".
“Before covid, I never thought I would be a widow at 41,” said Summer Barrios.
Summer Barrios said she knew quickly after meeting Robert more than a decade ago that "he was mine."
Jessica is still dealing with the reality of never seeing her papa bear again.
"I never thought we'd be in this position so soon ... to think that he's not coming back," he said.
Jessica and her dad had an evening ritual of curling up in a big comfy chair and watching TV until Jessica fell asleep in her dad's arms.
Now, Jessica is curled up alone in that chair.
Barrios and her daughter are trying to raise awareness about prolonged covid and how it can be physically, mentally, financially and emotionally unbearable.
"This is not going to go away any time soon," said Summer Barrios.
"Long Covid patients have to decide between working or losing their jobs or choosing a treatment, if they are lucky enough to get into a Long Covid clinic."
Kids need to take Covid-19 seriously, too, Jessica said.
"It's not just a bad flu. It doesn't just affect older people, it affects children as well," he said.
"People need to start taking this seriously and do their part to help try to calm down this virus."
Deaths due to covid-19Children