Mom Who Tested Positive for COVID Dies Without Ever Being Able to Hold Newborn Baby

A Los Angeles mother reportedly lost her life to the coronavirus without ever getting the chance to hold her newborn daughter.

Vanessa Cardenas Gonzalez, 33, tested positive for COVID-19 in November, just a few days before giving birth to her first daughter, Heaven, her family told local station KTLA.

As the mother of three had already contracted the virus, she and the newborn were separated immediately after delivery.

"They didn’t want the exposure for the baby, so they rushed the baby out of there," her husband, Alfonso Gonzalez, told the outlet.

After being discharged from the hospital, Vanessa was told to quarantine away from the baby and her family while at home.

"She was very sick," Alfonso recalled. "She told me when we were driving home, 'I want the baby to be in the room with me.' And I said, 'No Vanessa, you can’t.'"

According to a GoFundMe page set up for the family, Vanessa only saw her newborn over FaceTime while isolating at home.

Though she was expected to recover, Alfonso said Vanessa's condition quickly worsened and he called an ambulance when she had trouble breathing.

She was reportedly rushed to UCLA Medical Center in Westwood where she suffered a heart attack and brain damage.

Vanessa was put on a ventilator and was not allowed any visitors. She died at the hospital about a month later on Dec. 14, KTLA reported.

"The hardest part for me through this is she didn’t get to hold her baby," Alfonso told the outlet.

Alfonso is now the sole parent of three children: sons Ruben, 11, Joshua, 7, and 1-month-old daughter Heaven.

"We cried together but at the same time they knew mom was home with God, that she can breathe now," he said of Vanessa's death.

A friend of Alfonso's created the GoFundMe page to raise money for the family as well as for a "proper Celebration of Life Service" for Vanessa.

The family has already received more than $28,000 in just one week.

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