A California middle school teacher and his wife, a San Bernardino nurse, were looking forward to the arrival of their fifth child earlier this year. Their family's story has now come to a doubly terrible end, after Daniel Macias, 39, died Thursday of COVID—just two weeks after his wife, 36-year-old Davy, died of the same, eight days after her baby was born. Per KTLA, the Inland Empire couple leave behind not only the newborn, but also kids ages 7, 5, 3, and 2, all of whom are now being cared for by their paternal grandparents.
The couple and their older four children all tested positive for the virus after visiting a beach and water park in early August, before the baby was born. The kids recovered, but Davy, a labor and delivery nurse, deteriorated, per the Washington Post. After she'd spent about a week in the hospital, her husband also ended up there as his own symptoms worsened. The couple's fifth child was delivered by cesarean section on Aug. 18, about six days after Davy ended up in the hospital.
Davy was already intubated by the time doctors delivered her baby and never got to meet her little girl before she died, per a GoFundMe set up by family members. Three days after his daughter was born, Daniel was also intubated. "He had no idea that [Davy] passed away," Davy's sister-in-law, Terri Serey, tells the Washington Post. She adds that Davy had been hesitant to get vaccinated because of her pregnancy. It's not clear whether Daniel was. The couple never had the chance to name the baby, per the San Bernardino Sun.
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Before he was intubated, Daniel told family members they should get vaccinated, Davy's brother, Vong Serey, tells KTLA. As for the kids, they're struggling to understand what happened: Terri Serey says the children's grandparents have told her the kids "spend a lot of time at night looking for [their] mom and dad," per the Post. As of Monday afternoon, more than $205,000 had been raised so far for the Macias kids on GoFundMe. (More COVID-19 stories.)
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