Pregnant nurse, unborn baby die of COVID after reportedly refusing to get vaccinated
Haley Mulkey Richardson is seen with her family in this photo posted on GoFundMe.
NEW YORK - A 32-year-old nurse and her unborn child died of coronavirus after she reportedly refused to get vaccinated.
Haley Mulkey Richardson worked in the labor and delivery unit at a Pensacola hospital in Alabama, and contracted COVID-19 about three weeks before her death on Aug. 20th, according to Al.com.
Richardson was transferred to an ICU after her symptoms deteriorated, according to the report.
Richardson, who left behind her daughter Katie and her husband Jordan, made a final public Facebook post on August 9, just before her condition worsened.
"Here in the dark, in the wee hours of the morning, it is so easy to pretend that all of this was just a nightmare or that I’m just here in this hospital bed due to my own issues with Covid," Richardson wrote. "Not for anything being wrong with my sweet baby girl whom I thought I was protecting in my own womb."
Her unborn daughter, named Ryleigh Beth, died two days before her.
Julie Mulkey, Richardson’s mother, said her daughter would not get vaccinated because she was planning to have another child and she was concerned about the possibility of anaphylactic reactions.
Haley Mulkey Richardson is seen in this undated photo posted on GoFundMe. (Haley Mulkey Richardson is seen in this undated photo posted on GoFundMe.)
"Haley had had anaphylaxis reactions in the past," Mulkey told the site. "So for that reason, she felt that it was not safe for her."
The CDC has urged all pregnant women to get vaccinated.
Mulkey is now asking other pregnant women to get vaccinated.
Kari and Jason Whatley organized a GoFundMe to help fund a future education for her surviving daughter. It had raised more than $23,000 by Wednesday morning.
They posted: "Anyone who has ever met Haley knows what a gift she was to this world—and what a far lesser place it will be without her. As her friends and family all knew, Haley was so easy to love, so very, very easy to love. Her spirit lit every room she ever walked into, her laugh brought a celebration to any moment, and her heart—her heart was as pure, and as kind, and as loving, and as selfless as anyone you have ever known or ever will meet again."