Soon after she gave birth, her baby was taken away from her to avoid risk of infection to the newborn.
Vanessa Cardenas Gonzalez was overjoyed that she was going to be a mother, but all her happiness came to an abrupt end when she was tested positive for coronavirus. The 33-year-old was diagnosed with the virus in November and she passed away even before she could hold her baby girl in her arms.
Vanessa and her newborn daughter, Heaven, were separated right after she gave birth to her. Her husband Alfonso Gonzalez revealed, “They didn’t want the exposure for the baby, so they rushed the baby out of there." Even though the baby and the mother were discharged from the hospital, Vanessa was asked to quarantine away from the baby and the rest of her family. “She was very sick. She told me when we were driving home, ‘I want the baby to be in the room with me.’ And I said no Vanessa, you can’t,” Alfonso said, according to KTLA.
#OMG Mom Only Sees Newborn on FaceTime Before Dying of Heart Attack and COVID-19 Complications, Husband Says https://t.co/dmdNz2xlwB
— Danni Gee (@DanniGeeNYC) December 22, 2020
“I was, like, ‘We have to separate you guys. You have to be separated. I know you want to see the baby. We’ll FaceTime! We’ll FaceTime with the baby,’” Alfonso said, according to NBC Los Angeles. Vanessa had no other option but to watch her baby on a video call. Her husband disclosed that she used to cry during the call. Alfonso had hopes that his wife would fight the disease and finally hold Heaven in her arms, but it was not meant to be.
Unfortunately, just a few days later after giving birth, Vanessa suffered a heart attack and had to be rushed to UCLA Medical Center. Her husband revealed that according to the doctors, it was because of the infection. Even though Vanessa tried to fight, she passed away after a month. The mother left behind her one-month-old daughter and two sons, Ruben, 11, and Joshua, 7, who are being taken care of by Alfonso.
“If I break, then they’re gonna break, you know what I mean? I can’t…I can’t show that,” Alfonso said, but there's one thing that haunts him more than anything. “She didn’t ever get to hold her baby. And she didn’t get to …ever see her." Alfonso hopes that she's looking after them from heaven, “She’s saying, ‘good job. Good job. I’ll see you. See you all soon.'"
The family members and close friends from the couple's church created a GoFundMe page that collected over $40K out of $10,000 goal. The goal is to help Alfonso as he struggles as a single father of three. Desiree Vera, a family friend said that they are helping the grieving husband and kids, “So they can give her the proper celebration of life service, you know, that she deserves."
References:
https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/covid-whittier-mom-newborn-facetime-only-heart-attack/2488322/
https://www.gofundme.com/f/vanessa-cardenas-gonzalez-memorial
