'It All Happened So Fast': Unvaccinated Texas Mom Dies Of COVID-19 Days After Emergency C-Section

A 27-year-old Texas woman died of COVID-19, days after she gave birth to her sixth baby via an emergency cesarean section. She was not vaccinated due to her religious beliefs.

Crystal Hernandez tested positive for the virus on New Year Day, reported ABC 7.

According to her husband Rico Hernandez, Crystal was 24 weeks pregnant when the duo tested positive for the virus. "She started feeling chest tightness and then her breathing got really, really short and really, really bad. Like she was struggling to talk," Hernandez told the news outlet.

The family decided to move Crystal to a nearby hospital on Jan. 4 as her oxygen levels dipped. There, they diagnosed her with pneumonia due to COVID-19. Crystal was again transferred to another medical facility and taken straight to the ICU to try and stabilize her and her baby, said the GoFundMe Page started by her family.

On Jan. 6 morning, Crystal was taken for an emergency C-section. The baby boy, Koda, was born at 25 weeks. "They said that she did fine during the emergency C-section. And that she was aware afterward and that they were able to tell her she had a healthy baby boy," Hernandez said.

Over the next two weeks, doctors told the family was Crystal's condition was improving. However, suddenly her health deteriorated, and she died on Jan. 16. "We didn't get to see her until she was close," Hernandez said. "I wish I would have hugged her tighter and held her long before I let her walk through those sliding doors," he added.

Baby Koda is currently in NICU but his father says he is strong and is doing well.

Hernandez said the two were not vaccinated based on their beliefs. "Me and my wife, we talked about it," Hernandez said. "She was pregnant and so she had some concerns. It all happened so fast and it was being pushed on us very fast and she just didn't want-- she didn't feel comfortable and so I wasn't going to go against her wishes," he told the news outlet.

A similar case was reported recently in Atlanta where a 27-year-old woman died of COVID-19 two weeks after she prematurely gave birth to her child last month. Marrisha Kindred Jenkins was eight months pregnant when she was diagnosed by doctors with COVID-19. The unvaccinated mother prematurely delivered her third child.