By Erica Thomas, managing editor
PELL CITY — After the death of her 72-year-old mother from COVID-19, one woman is speaking out about her horrific experience, in hopes that people will take the virus seriously.
Tara Buchanan lost her mother, Pamela Daniel, to the illness on Dec. 16, 2020. While many people were out last-minute Christmas shopping or tying up loose ends before the holidays, Buchanan was inside a hospital watching her mother struggle for each breath.
“I was, fortunately, able to be at the hospital with her so I had a different view,” said Buchanan.
With every breath, the sound of a ventilator could be heard through the hallways of the hospital. The intensive care unit where Daniel had been for two weeks was a somber reminder of the severity of coronavirus.
Daniel, who lived in Trussville for 20 years before moving to Pell City four years ago, was in the high-risk category because of her age. But she was active and healthy. She walked three miles a day and Buchanan said even her doctors predicted she would make it.
“The doctors all thought she would get better,” Buchanan said. “It’s just been heart-wrenching.”
And on day 10 of her hospital stay, some uplifting news came. Daniel’s doctor saw her on the morning of Dec. 3. He predicted she would be released from the hospital and would be home by that afternoon. But that didn’t happen. Within hours, Daniel was placed into the ICU.
The only positive news about the ICU stay was that it meant Daniel would have more nurses and more medical attention. There was hope that she would be healed and would get to return home to her husband of nearly 50 years.
Unfortunately, after 23 days in the hospital, 14 of those in ICU, Daniel passed away. As Buchanan continually updated friends and family through a Facebook page from the hospital, those days of watching the suffering did something to her. She knew she had to get the message out: COVID is real!
“As I walked through the hospital hallways every day, I saw so much suffering and people were alone,” Buchanan recalled. “This is such a horrible illness. You’re struggling to breathe, scared, and you can’t even have your loved ones there with you to comfort you. It’s just horrible.”
Buchanan said she knows many people are suffering this year. She wants to do her part to stop the suffering.
“I sat in the hospital for three weeks watching doctors and nurses cry in frustration because this shouldn’t have been happening to my mom,” said Buchanan…”It’s not their fault. They did all they could. Their love, care, and effort were second to none but it just wasn’t enough because there is no cure for COVID.”
Buchanan urges people to social distance, wear masks and follow recommendations from health experts. No matter how healthy you are, Buchanan said her mom is an example of what can happen if everyone doesn’t do what they can to protect others.
“She cried and wanted to get better,” said Buchanan. “She told the doctors she didn’t want to die. She wanted to be here longer. But despite all the efforts she took to stay COVID-free, the exercises she did to stay healthy, the many medications and treatments she took to be healed, her time on earth is done and she is now in Heaven. Covid is REAL!”