Barb Bartolovich Ohio vaccinated cancer survivor dies after catching COVID from friend who hid infection after playing cards. Family issue warning.
An Ohio woman who survived cancer has died of COVID-19 after contracting the illness from an infected friend who hid their diagnosis according to the woman’s grieving family.
Barb Bartolovich, 82, a blood cancer survivor, was vaccinated and took the necessary precautions, including only socializing with like-minded people amid the pandemic, WXYZ reported.
She decided to get together with friends to play cards and asked everyone beforehand if they were vaccinated, according to the outlet.
They all said they were inoculated — but her family claims one of them lied.
‘Somebody decided that testing positive for COVID is something they can hide,’ Bartolovich’s granddaughter Lauren Nash of Michigan, told WXYZ. ‘The only way we found out is that the person owned up after Nana got sick.’
‘She was just everything to everyone’
Bartolovich despite being vaccinated, had a weakened immune system, leading to her being hospitalized upon being infected. The 82 year old cancer survivor was placed on a ventilator, only to die soon after, on Dec. 21.
‘She was just everything to everyone. As everyone says, if you knew Barb, you were loved. She was taken too soon,’ said Nash, who wants to spread the message about the importance of safety meaures.
‘It is not worth it. It is not worth knowing you hurt someone, potentially hurt someone, or killed someone because you want to go out and have fun,’ Nash told WXYZ.
‘I am just horrified at where we are and what is going on, that we are not taking into account people’s lives,’ she added.
Bartolovich, who lost her husband, Frank ‘Moose’ Bartolovich, in 2014, ‘cherished her role as a wife, mother and grandmother,’ according to WKBN.
‘A little firecracker, Barbara was always raring to go for family gatherings, vacations and impromptu outings. She was their support system throughout life and she taught them many lessons,’ WKBN reported cited the 82 year old woman’s obituary.
‘Barbara’s motto was, ‘There is nothing so bad in life that can’t be fixed,’’ it continues.
Surging cases in the US
‘She was considered cool and fun to her grandchildren and they described her as ‘to know her was to love her and to be loved by her was the most special feeling in the world. She made every one of us feel special in her own Nana way,’’ it adds.
Bartolovich leaves behind her four children and 10 grandchildren.
Bartolovich’s passing comes as Ohio – and the rest of the US – experienced a surge in COVID cases and deaths.
Ohio set a new record for daily cases on New Year’s Eve, reporting 20,598 cases.
The state has averaged 11,797 cases per day over the last 21 days, according to the state health department.
Ohio also reported 667 virus-related deaths on Friday, which was approximately 10 percent higher than any other state, per Johns Hopkins University data.
The surge comes as many states are reporting all-time highs for positive COVID cases amid the spread of the Omicron variant.
