COVID-19 is still a major threat to our nation, and people are still getting sick every day. Many families have had to say goodbye to loved ones — especially loved ones who may have felt like they were in the clear, based on their age. But young people are also dying due to COVID symptoms, one being mother and nurse Tawauna Averette, who was only 42.
Tawauna had just given birth to a newborn baby named Skye, and she'd had her early through a C-section. Unfortunately, due to her health, she was never able to hold her baby prior to dying.
Her symptoms started in October, and she ended up testing positive for the coronavirus. Later that same month, she was admitted into the intensive care unit. Tawauna was having issues breathing, which was even more of a concern due to her pregnancy.
She kept friends and family members updated through Facebook, often writing about how sad she was that nobody was taking this virus seriously.
Tawauna was a cardiac unit nurse at Kettering Medical Center in Dayton, Ohio. At first, the symptoms seemed manageable. But then she took a turn. Her husband, Charles Averette, was beside himself when speaking to the Dayton Daily News about the family's loss. "It's hard," he said. "She was everything for us, and we don't have her no more."
Throughout the bad spells, Tawauna was on and off a ventilator and a BiPAP machine. While in the ICU, she gave birth. Luckily, baby Skye seemingly tested negative, according to Tawauna's Facebook posts. But while the mom had pictures, she still had to keep her distance — which is a heartbreaking battle for any new mom.
"[Nurses] took the baby out of the room – that was it," her friend Kellye Albes-Fisher told WHIO-TV, per People magazine. "She never got to bond." While Tawauna knew that she was likely to contract the virus due to her line of work, she really didn't think it'd be this bad.
Her workplace released a statement to People about her death, saying, "She was a beloved and valued member of our Kettering Health Network team, and our thoughts and prayers are with her family and friends in this time of loss." A GoFundMe page has also been set up for her family by her husband, Charles. Seven young children lost their mother due to this virus, and it's something that Tawauna herself thought she had a handle on at one point.
Her updates were a good way to spread the message, but many friends and family members still didn't seem to understand that Tawauna was literally battling for her life. "Y'all gonna kill someone," she wrote on Facebook in November. "Y'all think this Covid is a joke…I almost didn't make it to the hospital …. I'm on everything under the sun and y’all still out here going to clubs and hanging out like Corona don't exist."
As Charles told WHIOTV, Tawauna did everything she could to avoid the coronavirus and avoid spreading it. "(She) made sure we all had masks all the time," Charles said. "She always made sure we had them on, made sure we had hand sanitizer, made sure the kids was washing their hands on the regular."
It's a reminder that even those who try their hardest and follow the rules are still susceptible to the virus. It's one of the reasons why the coronavirus is so scary. Yet still, there are plenty of people out there who think it's a hoax. If it were a hoax, Tawauna would still be alive today.
And Charles wants to make that very public. He knows how devastating this virus is firsthand. "I would just tell them from experience personally I know this is real," he said. "If you're not wearing a mask … to me it means you don't care about anyone but yourself."
On November 9, Tawauna wrote a post that explained how lonely the diagnosis was. "I really want to thank everyone for the love and prayers," she said. "This is very lonely and scary…I have a newborn I might not get to see for 30 days that's the worse experience…..the doctors say I can have gifts delivered to the front desk for the next 30 days and they can wipe them off and I can have them."
"Y'all know I have been an advocate for safety and precautions for Covid since it first came out," she added. "All I did was go to work and come home." And that said, she ended up suffering from a lonesome and worrisome ending. There was so much Tawauna still should have been able to do. She wasn't even able to really meet and get to know her new daughter.
Her final days were spent thinking that things were getting better. But this virus is relentless. There have been many accounts of people still not feeling 100% weeks and months after contracting it. For families all over the world, this is a life-changing virus. And we're not out of the woods yet.
At the very least, all of Tawauna's family and friends will know that she gave her life toward saving others. Nurses who are on the front lines and facing COVID cases on a daily basis are under a lot of pressure in general. They're looking out for other people first. And that's the attitude that's important in order to get through this.
By wearing a mask and washing your hands, you can help prevent the spread. Staying indoors as much as possible is also recommended. Tawauna isn't the only mother who's lost her life this year. According to The New York Times, there have currently been 301,000 deaths in the United States.
It's also a reminder that specialized doctors and nurses put themselves in harm's way every day. Tawauna could have quit if she felt like the stress was too high. But instead, she fought — and she made a big difference. Tawauna's death came as a surprise to those following her online, but it helped people gain awareness of how brutal a virus this can be.
