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Son's haunting last words to mum before dying from covid

A grieving mum has shared her son’s heartbreaking final words before he died of coronavirus.

Christy Carpenter, from the US state of Alabama, had her son Curt, 28, hospitalised with Covid-19 in March, The Washington Post reported.

Ms Carpenter said she and her daughter Cayla also contracted the virus. Cayla had mild symptoms but Ms Carpenter and her son had to be taken to hospital. She told WBRC her son was rushed to the ICU.

While Ms Carpenter and her daughter eventually recovered, the 28-year-old’s condition only worsened and he developed pneumonia.

He remained in hospital with low oxygen levels before he died on May 2. He had no prior health issues before catching the highly-contagious virus.

His mum said the family were concerned about getting the Covid vaccine and that her son had initially believed the virus was a hoax.

Christy Carpenter is pictured along with her son Curt, 28.
Curt Carpenter, 28, pictured with his mum Christy. He died from Covid-19 in May. Source: WRBC

Ms Carpenter told the Post his last words were: "This is not a hoax, this is real."

She said she is now making it her mission to encourage people to get vaccinated and take the virus seriously.

“If we can help keep people healthier and possibly save lives by encouraging others to take the vaccine, then Curt’s death was not in vain,” she told the paper.

Ms Carpenter told WBRC “in retrospect, if we had gotten it, it could have saved my son’s life”.

Alabama's vaccination problem

Alabama trails all US states in vaccinations.

Statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show that only 33.9 per cent of the state’s population is fully vaccinated, the lowest in the nation.

Questioned by reporters about what more could be done, Governor Kay Ivey sharpened her tone Thursday, expressing frustration that more people weren’t being vaccinated.

“Folks are supposed to have common sense,” she said.

A pharmacist administers a dose of the Covid-19 vaccine in Mountain Brook, Alabama.
A pharmacist gives a vaccine in Mountain Brook, Alabama. Source: Getty Images

“It’s time to start blaming the unvaccinated folks, not the regular folks. It’s the unvaccinated folks that are letting us down. ... I’ve done all I know how to do. I can encourage you to do something, but I can’t make you take care of yourself.”

Ms Ivey, who has rejected suggestions that new health precautions may be needed to counter rising illness, did not announce new measures to combat the pandemic, which has killed more than 11,470 people statewide to give Alabama what researchers at Johns Hopkins University say is the nation’s 17th highest death count.

Over the past two weeks, the rolling average number of daily new cases has increased by 858, a surge of 311 per cent. There were 258 new cases per 100,000 people in Alabama over the past two weeks, which was seventh worse nationally.

While hospitalisations are far below levels from January, when more than 3,000 people were being treated for Covid-19, caseloads are rising sharply and nearly 730 people were being treated Friday. Just 166 were hospitalised with Covid-19 on June 20.

with The Associated Press

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