The world has become a dangerous and unpredictable place due to the coronavirus – each and every day we’re hearing heartbreaking personal stories of loved ones who have lost family members to the pandemic.
Today, sadly is no different. Sundee Rutter was a 42-year-old mom-of-six and breast cancer survivor who died on March 16 after being infected with COVID-19.
According to reports, her six children, as well as her sister and mother, were forced to stay outside of her hospital room to say goodbye via a handheld radio device before she died.
Having struggled through a year-long fight with breast cancer, Sundee’s immune system wasn’t as strong as it might have been.
At first, the mom was allowed to see her family if she wore a face mask, but the hospital isolated her as symptoms worsened.
“Like, I’m about to lose my best friend and she can’t even hear me,” Ross Rutter, her fourth child said before her passing.
He went on to explain how his mom had first been taken in to Providence Regional Medical Center in Washington on March 3. There, she spent eight hours in a sealed room with hospital staff coming and going in full protective suits.
“She thought she had the flu, probably,” Ross Rutter, 20, told BuzzFeed News. “But like, the coronavirus? It was kind of hard for us to understand how she could get it because not that many people had it around here.”
On March 7, four days after Sundee and her son were sent home, they went back to hospital. Doctors examined Sundee and informed Ross that they would keeping her overnight to treat her for pneumonia. She tested positive for COVID-19 the very next day.
“She had already beat [cancer] and was trying to get her life back and then this happened,” Jessica Harris, a close friend of Sundee’s, told BuzzFeed News.
“She’s a fighter, she did not seem to let it bother her at all.”
Such sad news, I can only imagine what her children must be going through at the moment.
Rest in peace, Sundee. I hope you’re with the Lord in his beautiful garden now.
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