An Alabama family is mourning the loss of two members, one of whom they never got to meet.
Haley Mulkey Richardson was a registered nurse working in labor and delivery at Ascension Sacred Heart Hospital in Pensacola, Florida. She lived with her husband and 2-year-old daughter, Katie, just over the border in Theodore, Alabama.
At the time, Haley was pregnant with her second child, another little girl they planned to name Ryleigh Beth. She decided to wait until after the pregnancy to get vaccinated, as she worried about the effects on her unborn daughter. Sadly, Haley was told she lost the baby just two days before losing her own battle against COVID-19, three weeks after she contracted the virus.
Julie Mulkey, Haley's mom, is having a hard time with the loss of both her daughter and granddaughter. "It's really hard," she told AL.com.
"It's hard to accept, it's hard to face. We're glad she's not suffering anymore."
A family friend told the outlet that Haley contracted COVID-19 in late July or early August, about three weeks before her death.
"She was home sick for about a week and then her heart rate went up," family friend Jason Whatley shared.
"I guess that's something they look for."
Haley was taken to USA Health Children's and Women's Hospital in Mobile. A few days later, as her condition worsened, she was transferred to the ICU at USA Health's main hospital campus in Mobile.
"After about three or four days in the hospital, the [obstetrician] told her that she was going to lose the baby," he noted.
"And she continued to get worse and worse."
"At some point, they basically told her that we've got to start treating you as if you didn't have a child," Jason noted.
"We've got to do what we can for you because the baby is going to pass anyway."
On August 9, Haley shared her thoughts on Facebook for what would be the last time.
"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," she wrote.
"Not for anything being wrong with my sweet baby girl whom I thought I was protecting in my own womb," she continued.
"I know the prognosis and I know the reality. And while part of me may start to acknowledge this, the other part of me still believes God is still the God of miracles and is in control above all else."
"I hope and pray for miracles, but having said that I am also praying for his will to be done," she concluded.
"If there has ever been a time to ask for something to be taken out of my own hands and put in his, it is now."
Jason said that while doctors wished Haley had been vaccinated, she'd taken care of herself perfectly otherwise.
"She was a nurse. She knew exactly when to go to the hospital, when her heart rate went up," he said.
"They wished she'd been vaccinated, but outside of that, when she got sick, they did all the right things. And she still died."
Mom Julie said that Haley had given vaccination a lot of thought.
"Haley had had anaphylaxis reactions in the past. So for that reason, she felt that it was not safe for her," she explained.
"And then, of course, with all the negative reporting that has gone on, what was she to believe about what the vaccine would do to reproduction? Stuff about that it would destroy a female's eggs and that kind of thing, and she wanted to have her second baby. That made her afraid to get it."
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention does recommend for pregnant women to get the vaccine and says it is safe for women in all stages of pregnancy. The American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology also supports the vaccine.
"We talked about it several times. She said at one point that she had about made up her mind to do it. And she just … she just couldn’t quite get it done," Julie shared.
"If she had had the information that has come out since this happened to her, yes, she would have gotten it. Since her illness, we have found that this is hitting many, many pregnant women that are 26-27 weeks into their pregnancies," Julie continued.
"And the baby died two days before she would have been 27 weeks. So I understand there's quite a few women in UAB in the same shape."
Julie says that she and her older daughter were also holding out, but they have been vaccinated since Haley's death.
"I had held off on getting my own shot. Now I have done that, the second one’s coming up later this week. My older daughter is the same way," she said.
"And we have a couple across the street from us who are expecting, and one afternoon I just barreled over there, and I said 'look, if you haven't done it, go get it done.'
"It's absolutely had a big bearing on our opinion. Watching what my precious daughter went through was indescribably hard."
A friend of Haley's also shared on Facebook her story about getting vaccinated in Haley and Ryleigh's honor.
"I was so against the vaccine but their story made me realize that I didn't want to put my own family through that. So I got vaccinated in honor of their baby girl not knowing that very morning Haley lost her battle," they wrote, in part.
"I know people are scared of the vaccine I was to. But what scares me more is that my family would have to go through what Jordan Denny Richardson and the rest of Haley's family and friends are right now.
"When you lose someone you love things become much clearer. You will be missed sweet girl but I will share your story in hopes it could save someone's life."
