Pregnant women are one of the least vaccinated groups in the United States, despite the fact that they are at the greatest risk of serious disease and death from COVID-19.

A Tennessee woman who was not vaccinated died of COVID-19 after a month-long fight with the virus that forced her to deliver her baby prematurely.

Amanda Perry, 36, of Dickson County, Tennessee, died Monday of Covid, her family said. 

She had not been vaccinated against the virus, but she apparently intended to do so after giving birth.

Perry’s family claims she had already suffered many miscarriages and feared the vaccination would result in another.

Perry was 32 weeks pregnant when she was admitted to the hospital on September 15 with Covid pneumonia, her husband, Billy, told WKRN in Nashville.

Doctors at TriStar Centennial Medical Center in Nashville had to perform an emergency C-section on Amanda to save her baby. 

However, due to capacity constraints at the hospital, she was transferred to another facility in Richmond, Virginia, where she was placed on a ventilator.

Billy came to Richmond to be with his wife and temporarily stayed in a nearby apartment, according to a GoFundMe page set up for the family.

Her symptoms included a high fever, mastitis (an inflammation of breast tissue), bacteria in her blood and a collapsed lung.

“We didn’t have options. She was terrified. I was terrified, ” Billy told Newsweek. 

“Covid’s a killer. You hear about it on TV all the time, but it never really hits home. Yeah, somebody you work with might get Covid but you don’t know anybody that’s having their whole world ripped apart because of it. 

“Then when it happens, it’s awful. It came out of nowhere and it happened so fast.”

When Billy sensed his wife would not survive, he flew in Amanda’s mother to say her final farewells. 

On Sunday, doctors informed the family that Amanda’s condition had deteriorated to the point where her death was unavoidable.

“I wish we had talked more about getting the vaccine,” Billy told Newsweek. 

“We weren’t against it. We weren’t anti-vax. When you’re pregnant what do you do? There’s not much research out there. She was freaking scared.”

Pregnant women are the least vaccinated group in the United States, yet are at the highest risk of Covid complications.

According to data from the CDC, less than 35 percent of pregnant women in the U.S. have received vaccines.

Many studies have shown that the vaccine is safe and effective for pregnant women.

Pregnant women with symptomatic COVID-19 are much more likely to require emergency deliveries, and their newborn child is significantly more likely to require further medical care following birth, according to a study published in October.

Image Credit: Getty

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