Roberta Shelton Indianapolis, Indiana woman first person to die from coronavirus in the state forced to say goodbye w/ Ipad for fear of spreading disease.
The first person to die from coronavirus in Indiana had to say goodbye to her partner via iPad because they were not allowed to be in the same room.
Roberta Shelton of Marion County – who was aged in her 60s and had underlying health conditions, passed away in Indianapolis on Monday. The Hoosier woman’s death follows Shelton having been admitted to hospital last week.
But there’s an added catch.
Dr. Ram Yeleti, chief physician at the hospital network where she died, said: ‘What makes this really hard, is that this individual’s significant other was also infected, so the two of them could not be together when this patient passed.’
Speaking to Fox59, she added: ‘We had to do iPad conversing so the individuals could see each other. So that this individual did not die alone, one of our nurses stayed in the room.’
Shelton had not traveled out of the state before contracting the virus, friends told Wish TV. It remained unclear how or where Shelton contracted COVID-19.
‘She was just such a vibrant person,’ Dr Yeleti added.
‘Ready to go to Heaven cause she was tired of the pain.’
Shelton’s cousin, Connie Estrada said the beleaguered woman went to the hospital after getting a high fever, and then posting to Facebook saying she was ‘ready to go to heaven because she was tired of being in pain.’
Friends remembered her as a giving person who often organized fundraising events in her community.
Since Shelton’s death, Indiana has reported a second coronavirus fatality in a person aged above 60 south of Indianapolis.
The state has confirmed 39 cases of coronavirus so far, though problems with testing mean this is likely an under-estimate the dailymail reports.
Coronavirus has a mortality rate around 1 per cent, meaning 2 deaths would suggest at least 200 infections in the state.
So far in the US, there have been 9464 recorded cases of individuals infected with coronavirus and 155 deaths. That’s less than half a percent of all adults in the US.
Rates have been rising rapidly as the virus spread undetected in US communities and as more tests become available to detect patients.
Roberta Shelton is the first Hoosier killed by the coronavirus. The Marion County woman died on Monday. I had the opportunity to speak with her over the years as she advocated to find the Delphi killer.
Posted by Rafael Sánchez, RTV6 on Tuesday, March 17, 2020
