Pregnant Ghanaian-born nurse in UK dies of COVID-19 shortly after giving birth

Mary Agyeiwaa Agyapong, 28, died on Sunday after an emergency cesarean section to deliver her baby after her health deteriorated having been admitted to a hospital over the coronavirus.

She died at the Luton and Dunstable University Hospital where she had worked for the last five years as a nurse in the UK‘s National Health Service (NHS).

But Agyapong’s baby is reportedly “doing very well”. An online fundraising campaign on behalf of her husband and child said Agyapong’s daughter has been named “Mary” after her mum. The UK’s Evening Standard said over £60,000 or about $75,000 has been realized from the ongoing fundraising campaign.

Meanwhile, her surviving husband has been forced into self-isolation while he awaits results on his COVID-19 test.

The deceased, who is of Ghanaian heritage, had been taken to the hospital on April 7, two days after she was confirmed to have contracted the killer disease.

Tributes have poured in from some of Agyapong’s former colleagues as well as an NHS executive, who described Agyapong as a “fantastic nurse and a great example of what we stand for in this [NHS] trust”.

“Our thoughts and deepest condolences are with Mary’s family and friends at this sad time,” added trust executive David Carter.

Renai Mcinerney, a former colleague, reportedly wrote in praise of Agyapong,

“Sister Mary was my colleague, I worked alongside her for a few years. She deserves her family to be looked after, after she devoted her life to the NHS as a nurse. It’s time to look out/after our own and return the selflessness persona Mary carried and give something so small, but so big to her family in this time of need. RIP sister Mary!”

The UK’s frontline workers thought to constitute a good chunk of the country’s confirmed cases of the coronavirus. The country is currently reporting close to 100,000 cases with some 13,000 dead.