Jessica Cooper and her daughter Justus. Photo courtesy of Jessica Cooper.
Instead of helping others with disaster aid from the 2016 floods, 39-year-old Jessica Cooper finds herself in an ICU bed at Baton Rouge General suffering from COVID. Cooper is a single mom from Lake Charles. She wasn’t vaccinated because it would require her to be off medication for several weeks in order for the vaccine to be effective.
“I isolated myself, and distanced myself, but it’s nothing to play with, it’s not a joke, it’s very real. It comes quick, it attacks quick,” said Cooper.
Cooper said being away from her daughter, Justus, for almost two weeks now, is especially hard and she was even prepared to say goodbye when her condition was much worse. Cooper said she’s extremely concerned because, at age 11, Justus isn’t eligible to be vaccinated yet. Because of that Cooper made the hard choice for virtual learning this year.
“I would definitely wear masks, have the kids wear masks, especially if they’re too young to get vaccinated, no one wants to be here in the hospital dependent on machines to help you breathe,” said Cooper.
As for her prognosis, Cooper isn’t sure when she’ll be discharged but said she’s been told she’ll need oxygen for some time. Cooper said she plans to get vaccinated once she’s off her medication and approved to do so, but in the meantime, she feels more drastic measures should be taken to stop the Delta variant and help keep others like herself out of the hospital.
“I do feel that another lockdown is needed because everybody got a little too relaxed, but I would encourage everyone to take the vaccine,” said Cooper.
Cooper who also suffers from asthma, said her symptoms began on July 30th. She tested positive on August 4th and was admitted a few days later.
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