'I Thought It Was A Heart Attack': Milwaukee Man's Entire Family Dies Of COVID In A Month

KEY POINTS

John Delarue says his mother collapsed on Dec. 11
His sister reportedly died in her sleep on the bed
John's parents died within a span of 10 days

A Milwaukee man has opened up about how COVID-19 wiped off his entire immediate family within weeks, leaving him a "sole survivor." All of them were unvaccinated.

John Delarue told WTMJ-TV his family consisting of his parents and sister, who was legally blind, were getting ready to celebrate Christmas when COVID struck.

John lived on the ground floor of a duplex owned by his parents James and Susan Delarue. His sister Lynn Delarue lived with their parents, who were also their primary caregivers.

His mother was the first one to fall ill on Dec. 11. John was home when he heard a thud. He rushed to find out what made the noise when he saw that his mother had collapsed. "I thought she was having a heart attack, so I called 911," John told the news outlet.

To his shock, he found out that his mother had COVID. She was immediately put in the COVID ICU. "I talked to my mom. It was the day before they intubated her, and she told me that her nurse and doctors recommended that if my dad and sister were feeling sick that they should get to the hospital right away," he added.

Both his father and sister too tested positive for the virus and he found his sister dead in her bed on Dec. 16.

"The paramedics were called once again to transport my Dad to the hospital while I waited for the medical examiner to arrive," John wrote in his GoFundMe page, where he seeks aid to help organize the funeral of his parents.

He hid his sister's death from his mother, not wanting to upset her while in ICU. "We kind of both agreed that it would be best that we did not tell her until she got better. We had hopes that everyone was going to get better," said John.

However, Susan died following an organ failure on Dec. 21, five days after her daughter. James too followed his wife and died on Dec. 31, after spending two weeks intubated in hospital.

"He started getting fevers off and on. His organs started failing as well. His doctor was just like, you know, (the) best thing to do in this case is start end of life care, also with him. She’s like, ‘Do you agree?’ and I just lost it at that point, like, ‘I’m losing my dad too?’ You know we really were hoping, he was going to come home," John told WTMJ-TV.

John now wants people to take COVID seriously and is getting vaccinated this week.