A Tennessee mother of three is urging people to take Covid-19 seriously as her 9-year-old daughter lies in the hospital fighting for her life after contracting the virus.
Mirsada Muric, 26, has spent the last couple of weeks in and out of the East Tennessee Children's Hospital visiting Blair, her daughter, and has been posting various updates on her Facebook profile. In those posts, she would get supportive comments, but would then often see misinformation on those people’s profiles.
“I'd get on their Facebook and see them posting memes or sharing things that they saw on Twitter about how much of a joke it is about being ‘scared’ of a virus and yes, I am scared of it,” Muric said. “I'm scared for my child and I can't wrap my head around the idea of not wanting to wear a mask or not wanting to wash your hands, when that could be the easiest helping hand that you can give to someone.”
She immediately felt anger and went on Facebook to plead for people to believe that Covid is real and to wear a mask.
“THIS is why people beg for you to wear a mask. Who are you hurting by wearing one? What freaking rights are you losing?! Because, while I sit here and watch a machine breathe for my baby, you are out living,” Muric wrote in a July 31 post.
She also said this wasn’t the first difficulty of the year for her family.
Blair had been diagnosed with a brain tumor in February and later in July, her father unexpectedly died. Muric believes her daughter contracted the coronavirus at a recent memorial service for her father.
After initially being sent home, Muric began to realize that her daughter wasn’t acting like her normal self. Two days later, Blair also tested positive for RSV, or respiratory syncytial virus, which put her at high risk of severe illness and in the intensive care unit. She was later placed on a ventilator and diagnosed with Covid pneumonia.
”With her tumor, it was different … almost easier,” Muric wrote in a Facebook post Aug. 3. “We had a game plan, plan B and a follow-through. This is just a waiting game.”
While Blair was in the hospital, her mother also tested positive for Covid, leaving her unable to visit her daughter.
While her daughter was on the ventilator, Muric’s greatest concern was that the child wouldn’t survive without it. Days later, things took a turn and she was finally taken off the ventilator, giving her mother more hope for a healthy recovery.
Blair remains in the intensive care unit fighting Covid, but her mom says she's expected to recover.
Covid cases in children are on the rise in the state, with youth accounting for 27 percent of the new cases, according to the Tennessee Department of Health.
As pediatricians have been pleading for the Food and Drug Administration to authorize a Covid-19 vaccination for kids under the age of 12, Muric says she will have her daughters vaccinated as soon as it is available.
“I don't want this to be a political thing and I understand that it's everyone's own personal choice and opinion, but do the research and don't get the research off of social media,” she said.
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