Mooresville, N.C. — A North Carolina man is pleading for people to get the COVID-19 vaccine after he said his wife’s hospital stay was cut short due to a surplus of patients and a shortage of rooms.
Jason Arena’s wife had stage 4 breast cancer. According to Arena, he drove her to the hospital for treatment because she was having severe symptoms, including trouble breathing due to excess fluid in her lungs and jaundice.
Arena said they got to the hospital at 4:30 a.m. but had to wait four hours to be seen. “They put an oxygen mask on her, and she sat in a wheelchair for four hours in the waiting room,” he said.
Once his wife was treated in the emergency room, the doctors did a great job, Arena said, but due to a surplus of COVID-19 patients, his wife did not get her own hospital room until late that night.
After one night in the hospital, Arena said his wife was discharged although she was still uncomfortable.
“They are in a position where they need to get people out,” he said.
Arena said his wife suffered at home for two days while he tried to get her an outpatient appointment. She later died.
“It hit me hard because she wasn’t comfortable,” he said, criticizing people who are not vaccinated and those who are skeptical of the existence of the virus for “running to the hospital and putting everyone at risk.”