'This Is 10K People Who Have Died' Maryland Woman Shares Story After Mom Dies From COVID-19, Urges People To Get Vaccinated
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- Governor Hogan ordered Maryland flags to half staff to honor the more than 10,000 Marylanders who have died from COVID-19.
Emotions run high as faith runs out.
"It's a little frustrating. I think some days are harder than others," said Stella Dolan.
Stella Dolan is an Emergency Room nurse at Ascension St. Agnes Hospital. She said it's been a challenge watching hospital beds fill up with COVID patients. Most of them refuse to get the vaccine.
"I think some days it's a little hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel when you see the spikes coming in and you see sick kids coming in its not as encouraging," said Dolan.
Thursday, Maryland reached a grim milestone -- more than 10,000 people have died from the virus.
Carolyn Garcia was a legal secretary for Baltimore City for 52 years. She is one of those 10,011 Marylanders who have died from COVID-19 in the past year and a half.
"So, this is a picture of me and my mother when I was a baby," Tara Green shows WJZ.
"And, shopping, we loved shopping," Green added.
It's been eight lonely months for Tara Green. "Now, I feel like I don't have anybody," she said.
Tara is Carolyn Garcia's only child.
"Everybody loved her," said Green.
Over the holidays, her close family got together and more than a dozen got infected.
"This virus is ultra, ultra contagious," Green explained. She said she and her mother had it the worst. "Who knew that would be my last holiday period with my mother?"
"I never thought that when my mother left in an ambulance that she would not come back. I never thought that I would not be able to see her," Green added.
Carolyn died on Jan. 12. She would have been eligible for the vaccine later that week.
"She would have definitely got (the vaccine). I wish she would have had the chance to get it," Green told WJZ.
The state has lost more than 18 Marylanders a day to COVID since last March -- surpassing 10,000 deaths, Thursday morning.
"This is 10,000 people who have died. People are not a number," Green said.
The rest of the family recovered quickly, But Tara was so sick with COVID, she needed treatment at the hospital too.
"COVID is the worst thing in the world to get. My symptoms over time just got worse and worse, just like hers did," Green told WJZ. She wishes people now would do what her mom couldn't.
"I can not believe people are still dying from this," said Green. "Even if you don't get it for yourself, you should get it for other people."