Ireland

‘I hope we can save even one person’: Widower urges vaccination after Covid death of wife after giving birth

Josh Willis says Samantha was not vaccinated as that had been the advice in early stages of her pregnancy

The coffin of Samantha Willis is taken from St Columb’s Church, Derry. Photograph: Liam McBurney/PA Wire

Vivienne Clarke
Wed Aug 25 2021 - 12:39

The husband of a Derry woman who died of Covid-19 shortly after giving birth is encouraging everyone to get a Covid-19 vaccine.

Josh Willis told RTÉ Radio’s Today show his wife Samantha had not been vaccinated as in the early stages of her pregnancy that had been the advice – and that when this changed she was 28 weeks pregnant and they thought it was safe not to get the vaccine.

The couple had decided they would wait until after the baby was born for Ms Willis to get the vaccine, he said. Mr Willis had already been doubly vaccinated. “We were so close to the end, and we had been so careful,” he said.

At the end of the day it had been his wife’s body – she was the one carrying the baby, and it was her choice not to be vaccinated, he said. “We thought that we were all relatively safe.”

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The funeral of the mother-of-four (35) took place in Derry on Monday. Ms Willis’s new-born daughter Eviegrace was baptised at her mother’s funeral at St Columb’s Church

Ms Willis, who had three other children, died in hospital on Friday, August 20th.

Mr Willis said he tested positive for the virus on August 1st, while their four-year-old daughter, Lilyanna, tested negative twice that week.

The couple thought Ms Willis had picked up a bug from Lilyanna when she began to display “flu-like symptoms”. Mr Willis had no symptoms at first, but within a week he had lost his sense of taste and smell, he said.

“Sam was worried about me because I have asthma. She was the type who worried about everyone else.”

On the morning of August 3rd, Ms Willis became breathless, and Mr Willis brought her to the doctor who sent her to hospital; later that week she delivered Eviegrace, and “all the signs were positive”. Within days, however, “she took a dip” and was sent back to ICU where she died a week later.

The family had communicated via Facetime and text, and Mr Willis had thought his wife was getting better as she looked healthier. “She didn’t tell me she was scared, but she told her mother that she had been afraid she was going to die [when she was first admitted to ICU].”

Mr Willis had just visited a church with Lilyanna who wanted to light a candle for her mother when he received the call that she had taken a turn for the worse. Lilyanna was in the car with him as he tried to talk with a doctor and he had to tell her “Mammy might die.”

“Her face dropped, she was on the verge of crying. She asked who will be my Mammy then? I told her ‘she’s always going to be your Mammy.’”

The couple’s two older children, Holly and Shay, were “obviously devastated”, but the family was fortunate to have a wide support network of family and friends, he added.

By the time Mr Willis got to ICU, his wife was in a coma and lying on her stomach, but he continued to speak to her, holding her hand. “I told her that we all loved her.”

As it became obvious to him his wife was not going to recover, Mr Willis said he promised her “that we would do our best to make her proud”.

Mr Willis said he hoped his family’s story would help people, whether pregnant or not, to make the decision to get vaccinated. “I hope our story can help, that we can make Samantha proud, that we can save even one person.”

Mr Willis said he did not think the medical professionals would be recommending a vaccine if it was not safe; so as far as he was concerned there was no choice, people should get vaccinated.

The family had a lot of good memories of his wife, he said, and he hoped she was now looking down, “proud of how we’ve coped so far”.

Earlier, Mr Willis had appealed on social media to anyone who had not yet done so to get the jab “so you or your family don’t have to go through what I have had to”.

“As I write this I am laying beside her, she is 35, unvaccinated and in a coffin. Let that sink in!” he wrote.

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