'Big Shock' As 'Healthy' Mom Dies Of COVID-19 Just Days After Testing Positive

An unvaccinated 38-year-old mother in Liverpool, England died a week after she tested positive for COVID-19.

Nuria Daniela Gomes, who was considered "fit and healthy," tested positive for the novel coronavirus on Dec. 2, the Manchester Evening News reported.

The mother of two told her friend, Meta Tando, that she had developed a "cough" and "a little fatigue" after revealing the positive result on Dec. 3, but she insisted that "there [was] no need to worry about it," Tando said.

Gomes’ daughters, Myra and Erica, aged 17 and 20, respectively, later noticed that their mother “was struggling to breathe” when they were about to sleep together.

"I was panicking, but she said she was fine. When we switched the light on, we saw her hands were purple, her lips were purple and her eyes looked huge," Erica was quoted as saying by the Liverpool Echo.

The siblings called an ambulance and performed CPR on Gomes until paramedics arrived, but their mother never made it to Whiston Hospital.

Gomes, who was described by her two children as a "hard-working, caring, lovely and funny" mother, died at around 2 a.m. on Dec. 9.

"It was all happening so quickly. I still have flashbacks and then I try to quickly forget," Erica said.

Tando said the news of her friend's death came as a "big shock" for her as she had been speaking with her for the past week.

Elizabeth Neto, Gomes' closest friend, also described the loss as being "surreal" and "unbelievable."

"I tried to persuade her to get vaccinated, but she was concerned. She had read things on social media about there being possible consequences in a couple of years," the 35-year-old Neto, who met Gomes back in 2003 after the two left their homeland of Angola, said.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said COVID-19 vaccines are "safe and effective" and that "serious safety problems are rare."

Neto, a foster care worker and administration officer from Salford, said she missed her friend "a lot" and that she was still "trying to come to terms with" Gomes' death.

Myra and Erica, both still students, said they were "completely lost" as they processed their mother's death while their father was back in Angola.

"We don't know how we are going to pay for the funeral costs," the younger sister said.

Tando and Neto have since organized a GoFundMe page to help cover the costs for Gomes' funeral, which has raised £6,815 ($9,000) out of its initial £6,000 ($7,925) goal as of press time.

The United Kingdom has reported a total of 11,425,666 COVID-19 cases and 147,679 deaths, data provided by Johns Hopkins University showed.