A grieving daughter is on edge this morning in New York. Her dad Wilson Maa, 71, died late Saturday night in Miami of coronavirus. Now hours later, her mother Toyling, 64, is being treated in the hospital for coronavirus symptoms and her daughter Julie Maa is fearing the worse.
“She has a breathing tube. They’re giving her medication too so fever doesn’t spike. She has underlying conditions which makes me worry more. It’s a replay of what happened to my dad,” Julie said to ABC7.
It’s been a long tortuous journey for the South San Francisco couple. Wilson and Toyling Maa left their California home February 29 for a trip they had been planning for two years, a three week cruise to South America which included a dream stop to visit Machu Picchu. However, with the spread of the pandemic, Bueno Aires refused to allow the passengers to disembark the ship for their flights home.
The family says Wilson became increasingly ill as the Captain desperately looked for a port that would allow him to dock. By the time the Coral Princess reached Miami, Wilson had become seriously ill. The family waited four hours for an ambulance to arrive. He died two hours after being admitted to the hospital.
“His condition deteriorated so quickly,” Jason Chien said of his father-in-law to the Mercury News. “So a four-hour delay of an ambulance is so critical now. That’s why we were so fearful (for his mother-in-law). These delays aren’t acceptable because of the speed of how the conditions change.”
Toyling Maa also suffered delays getting an ambulance to take her for treatment. Ambulances came to take other passengers off the ship, but not Nancy.
Julie Maa took to social media to get help for her mom. She even tweeted Miami’s mayor before an ambulance took her mother off the ship.
“After the horror we’ve gone through with Wilson we can’t see that happen again,” said Chien.
Wilson is one of seven passengers and five crew members to test positive for coronavirus. Two other passengers besides Maa have also died.
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