A bride-to-be from Texas died from the coronavirus five days after she was supposed to get married.
Stephanie Lynn Smith, 29, of Lubbock, died before she could marry her fiancé, Jamie Bassett, 31.
She caught an illness in the days leading up to the wedding which she believed to be shingles, which allegedly flared up from the stress leading up to the big day.
Stephanie Lynn Smith, 29, was due to marry Jamie Bassett, 31, but contracted coronavirus days before her wedding
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A few days before her wedding, she started to feel unwell and went to the hospital
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“She was stressed out about the marriage,” her mother, Oralia Smith, told NBC News. “She went to the doctor about it and he gave her some medicine for it. “
But she had no symptoms related to the coronavirus. A few days later, she was having trouble tasting and smelling the food, and Smith’s condition worsened.
Her fiancé took her to the hospital where she was diagnosed with COVID-19 and pneumonia.
After being released, she returned home to rest.
“She was extremely tired,” Bassett said. “Honestly, she might have slept 20 hours that day.
Doctors diagnosed Smith with COVID and sent her home to rest
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But things continued to get worse and Smith returned to the hospital once again after her oxygen levels plummeted.
“We kissed her and told her we would see her and she would be fine,” her mother said.
It would be the last time anyone in her family would see her alive.
Aside from trying to increase his oxygen levels, things didn’t seem too bad and Smith was still able to post on Facebook.
“Thank you today for the nurses praying. And I’ll be giddy when I show them a picture of my wedding dress, ”she wrote. “Not out of the woods… far from it.” But I promise I feel every prayer. Thank you!!’
Smith spent what would have been her wedding day in hospital, in isolation, as she battled the virus.
“Today was supposed to be my wedding day,” her financier Bassett wrote in a Facebook post. “Instead, Stephanie is in the hospital to increase her oxygen levels and I haven’t seen her for two days. It’s really bad and I just want it not to turn out like this.
After being readmitted to hospital, Smith was diagnosed with pneumonia and COVID
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Smith spent her wedding day in complete isolation to die five days later
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Five days later, Bassett and Smith’s family were called to hospital fearing the worst.
“I was a little scared and had that in mind the whole time we were driving to the hospital,” Bassett said.
By the time the family arrived, Smith was already deceased.
“The doctors told us they had lost her pulse four times, and they brought her back three times with CPR, and for the last one they couldn’t get her pulse,” Bassett said.
Smith’s family do not know how they contracted the coronavirus. She had been working partly from home and partly in an office since the summer.
“Her laugh was so infectious. It was so strong. It was so funny, ”her mother said in tribute to her daughter. “Just to hear it. Always the loudest at family gatherings.
Instead of enjoying their first month as a married couple, Bassett mourned the love of his life.
“He’s someone you don’t meet every day. She was an exceptionally caring and loving person who just wanted to fix the world, ”he said.
Instead of enjoying their first month as a married couple, Bassett, left, mourned the love of his life
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