Sylvia LeRoy was a labor and delivery nurse who had worked in some of the most deprived ares of Brooklyn, New York, when she was struck down with COVID-19.
She was just over 6 months pregnant, and mom to a toddler, when she started to feel nauseous and went to her local doctor.
She was sent home with antibiotics but as her condition got worse, she returned to hospital where she tested positive for the virus.
As her condition deterorated she was put on a ventilator and her sister said she was doing well until she was taken off it and 7 days later suffered a cardiac arrest.
Her daughter was delivered at 30 weeks and is said to be doing well but Syliva suffered a brain injury that has left her unable to respond to sounds or touch.
Her sister Shirley Licin, told CNN’s Anderson Cooper, Sylvia will likely need months and months of rehabilitation and her health insurance provider won’t cover it.
“She deserves a chance. She deserves whatever her best actual can be,” Licin told Cooper.
According to a GoFundMe page visited by more than 15,000 people, Sylvia’s baby girl Esther is doing well.
“She is breathing nicely with the help of oxygen, started sucking her thumb and is practicing bottle feeding for short bursts of time.”
More than $800,000 has been raised through GoFundMe for Sylvia’s rehabilitation.
“Sylvia will need significant long-term acute cognitive and physical therapy to help give her a fighting chance for her baby Esther and her 3-year-old toddler Jay,” the page read.
‘Beyond horrific’
Doctors have told the family it could take years for meaningful recovery but she has been transferred to a rehabilitation center and is on a traumatic brain injury program.
Anderson Cooper said it was “beyond horrific” that a nurse who had dedicated her life to helping others could not get the medical care that she needed.
According to her sister her insurance provider will only pay for 60 days of treatment and Syliva will need months of it.
We hope the outpouring of love that Sylvia has received from the thousands of people who have donated to her page will help her family during this horrific time.
We wish Sylvia the best treatment possible so she can return to her family.
