Sisters of a pregnant Alberta woman who died of COVID-19 recommend vaccination to others

This Thanksgiving will be tough for Carol Charles and her family.

A 50-year-old child from Regina usually travels to his sister’s house in Edmonton for a vacation.

However, Jennifer Rhodesbluff-Thomas died last month at COVID-19.She was about 29 weeks Pregnant With her 9th child. She was also unvaccinated and infected with the more dangerous delta mutant.

“When they performed an emergency caesarean section, they explained to me that it was to help my sister take up more oxygen in her lungs, and at the same time she was unvaccinated, We have confirmed that it is preventable, “Charles said.

“It was the most painful part when they told me it was preventable.”

Charles said she last spoken to Rosebluff-Thomas a few days before the Caesarean section when her sister said she was dying.

“I told her I wouldn’t worry about being with the kids,” Charles said in tears.

Rosebluff-Thomas gave birth to a baby girl in late August. The baby survived, but the mother died a few days later, Charles said.

She said her 35-year-old sister, a single housewife, had eight more children between the ages of 1 and 19. Charles takes care of Regina’s five children, the other three in Alberta with his father.

She still doesn’t know where the baby will be raised.

“My sister was giving very much. It was difficult for her to say no to her children or anyone,” Charles said.

“She was such a donor, and it’s not fair that she isn’t here.”

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A woman in Alberta was hospitalized a few days before her first COVID-19 vaccination appointment

The National Advisory Board on Immunity and the Canadian Obstetrician-Gynecologists Association recommend that pregnant women be vaccinated twice with the COVID-19 vaccine.

Dr. Dina Hinshaw, Alberta’s chief health doctor, recently emphasized that pregnant women are at increased risk of serious consequences of the infection.

“With so much false information about pregnancy and vaccination spreading online, we want to assure Albertan that the mRNA COVID-19 vaccine is safe for pregnant and lactating people,” she tweeted last month.

“There is no evidence that the COVID-19 vaccine causes childbirth problems.”

Alberta Health Services spokesman Kelly Williamson said 14 pregnant women were admitted to the intensive care unit from July 15th to September 28th this year.

All of them were unvaccinated, he said.

“People who are pregnant, are about to become pregnant, or have recently given birth should be vaccinated with both doses of COVID-19 vaccine as soon as possible,” Williamson wrote in an email.

“Vaccines are safe and effective and are the best way to protect you and your baby from COVID-19.”

He said there was no data available on how many pregnant Albertans died from the virus.

It’s too late to save her sister, but Charles said she hopes her story encourages immunization of other pregnant women.

“(COVID-19 vaccine) is not guaranteed, but it helps,” Charles said.

“It may not be able to stop you from getting sick, but it will help you get over it.”

She said she had discussed immunization with her sister in the spring. Rosebluff-Thomas did not oppose the vaccine, so Charles thought she would be shot.

She doesn’t know why her sister didn’t, she said.

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Edmonton’s doctor says he called the woman to share her mother’s dying moment

NS GoFundMe page recently set up Rosebluff-One of Thomas’s friends helped her children.

“Jennifer was a beautiful person and had a beautiful soul,” says Page. “She loved all the children and did her best to give them everything.”

Charles said her niece and nephew were still shocked by her mother’s death and would be difficult for them because Thanksgiving wasn’t together.

“This was our holiday, and that’s what we were preparing for:”

She will have a Thanksgiving dinner with her five children this weekend as well. Charles said she especially misses her sister who keeps her company in the kitchen while she prepares meals.

“It doesn’t look true, but it’s true,” Charles said of her sister’s death.

“Without her, it’s a whole new life for all of us.”