'Shattered': Sister's tragic post after young nurse's Covid death
A young ER nurse infected with Covid has died after she suffered from complications due to the virus months after warning people not to get vaccinated.
Olivia Guidry, from Lafayette in the US state of Louisiana, died after battling the virus in the intensive care unit for only days, friends say.
On July 8, the nurse's sister wrote on Facebook she had a really high fever and a seizure after being diagnosed with Covid several days earlier.
Fluid was later found on her brain and she was put in a medically-induced coma so doctors could attempt to remove it.
"She had an MRI come back showing brain damage and swelling," Brittany Smith wrote.
Her condition continued to deteriorate and on Sunday (local time), her sister posted a message saying Ms Guidry had died.
"My sweet girl, there are so many things that I could say but my heart simply cannot find the words," she said.
"I will miss you every day for the rest of my life ... A beautiful, smart, kind, and loving girl with so much life left to live and who lived life with such joy and vibrancy.
"You were my absolute best friend. I truly can’t imagine life without you ... We will see each other again one day, but right now my heart is so shattered."
Tributes flow for young nurse
Facebook was flooded with tributes from heartbroken friends and colleagues who described Ms Guidry, a nurse at Ochsner Lafayette General, as "devoted and hardworking".
"Hearing this news is soul-crushing. I remember you as a nurse tech in the ER and then starting your nursing career with us all," a colleague wrote.
"You were a joy to be around. To know you is to love you."
Another friend shared her disbelief over the devastating news.
"Please pray for her soul and her family and former ER family as they have no choice but to keep moving amid this horrifically tragic loss at the hands of none other than f***ing Covid," she wrote.
"She's not just a number. She's not a statistic. She is a bright, shiny, hilarious, driven, warm person who loved life ... she was a damn good ER nurse, she worked just like a veteran nurse.
"I feel sick. So incredibly sad. I'm angry, and I am in disbelief. This one hits really hard."
Nurse made anti-vax posts on social media
Since news of her death, social media users have been critical of her previous posts promoting baseless conspiracy theories about the Covid vaccines.
According to Raw Story, the nurse posted tweets referring to the global vaccine drive as a "social experiment" aimed at controlling people.
"This vaccine has been released using recombinant DNA technology faster than any vaccine in the world. It manipulates your DNA at the tiniest molecular level. Do. Not. Get. It. It's not safe," she wrote in July 2020, before any vaccines were approved.
"Am I the only one thinking they are trying to see how much they can control us???" she wrote in the same month.
"We are a straight up social experiment."
Her Twitter account has since been deleted but screenshots of the tweets have been shared online.
Covid cases increasing in US state
On Friday (local time), Louisiana reported almost 1000 new cases of coronavirus and 10 deaths.
Since the start of the pandemic the state has recorded almost 490,000 total cases and more than 10,000 deaths.
State health officer Dr Joseph Kanter told WWNO radio the number of cases and hospitalisations in Louisiana were going up, with the Delta variant now the dominant strain.
Alert for Woolworths, Aldi, multiple Coles as exposure sites explode
'Insane': Confusion over Gladys Berejiklian's 'mixed message'
“It’s clear right now that Covid is increasing in the state," he said.
“It’s difficult for us to know how bad it’s going to get.”
Dr Kanter added the vaccines were effective against the Delta variant, however most people in Louisiana are not yet vaccinated and are at greater risk of spreading the virus.
It is not known if Ms Guidry had been vaccinated.
Do you have a story tip? Email: newsroomau@yahoonews.com
You can also follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter and download the Yahoo News app from the App Store or Google Play.
