A Florida woman who was hesitant to get vaccinated against COVID is now urging people to get the shot after losing two members of her family in one week to the virus.
Payten McCall, 24 is the youngest of three children and the only daughter of Mark and Sherry McCall.
She lost her 35-year-old brother Britt McCall on Monday after he got sick around the Fourth of July. He was taken directly to the ICU when he went to the emergency room for treatment.
McCall told CNN that her brother seem to be doing well up until he was placed on a ventilator.
“After a couple days, he wanted to go home, so he was trying to do anything he could to get home,” she said. “He fought for three weeks to come home and he suffered from complications of Covid and he didn’t make it.”
Their parents contracted the virus one week after Britt. Sherry, 58 was immediately admitted to the hospital, while Mark, 60 was sent home and told to quarantine because his symptoms were less severe.
Things took a turn for the worse and he was admitted to the hospital nine days later. Her dad died Friday morning on the same COVID ward where his wife was being treated for the virus.
Her mom was well enough to be sent home on Friday night but McCall said she is devastated by the loss of her oldest son and her husband of 38 years.
Britt’s fiancée also got Covid and her mother and grandmother died from it within five-days, McCall said.
“It has been one of the most, roughest and hardest experiences that I have ever had to go through in my whole life and I would never, ever wish this on anybody in their family,” she told CNN. “I mean, I wish it wasn’t me, but I sure wouldn’t wish it on anybody.”
She said her family was scared to get the vaccine because they have underlying health conditions and was worried about the side effects of the shots.
McCall said she tested negative for the virus and has received her first shot of the vaccine after her parents became hospitalized after contracting the virus.
“I would never want anyone to feel what we feel. I really want people to understand that none of my family was vaccinated. We were all against it because we were scared,” she told First Coast News. “But I want them to understand that this could happen to them. You could lose the people you love in a matter of days. I never thought my family would be put into a situation where my brother would not make it out alive.”
