A couple from Michigan have died from Covid-19 within just one minute of each other.
Linda Dunham, 66, and her husband Cal, 59, passed away holding hands after they were struck down by the deadly Delta variant that is ravaging the US.
The couple were both fully vaccinated, but both of them had serious underlying health conditions that made them more susceptible to serious infection.
The couple’s daughter Sarah spoke to a local news station, saying that they were perfect parents.
“The love that they found together after a previous marriage is fantastic,” she said.
“They were the people that you just looked at and you were like, ‘I want to be old like that, I want that love when I’m that age.’ ”
Their lives began to change in July, when both Linda and Cal started to feel unwell during a camping trip.
They first thought it was just a common cold, but by the third day they felt sick enough to cut their outing short.
Within days, Cal and Linda were admitted to the local hospital and intubated, as their undisclosed pre-existing conditions worsened the severity of their infections.
The doctors told their family members that they would have to be taken off life support, but as Sarah said, “they had other plans”.
The two were wheeled into the same room on Sunday, and moments later, Cal Dunham died at 11:07am Linda Dunham followed less than a minute later, dying at 11:08.
Their passing happened as Linda said it always would, according to Sarah. “She always joked and said, ‘Well, you’re going to go before I am, I’ll be right there behind you, I promise,’ ” Sarah Dunham said.
“And she really was, like she really was right there behind him.”
Cases such as the Dunham’s are reasons why many in the US are pushing for booster shot to be administered for those with pre-existing conditions.
Sarah wants her parents to be an example of how serious the virus can be, and is urging people to get vaccinated.
“I’m angry because so many people are like, ‘if I catch Covid, I catch Covid that’s what it is.’ No, it’s not,” she said.
“It could be any person; it could be anybody. They did everything right, they did everything to protocol the way it should be done.”
The various available Covid vaccines have been proven to reduce the risk of catching the virus and severely reduce the symptoms of those who get it.
According to America’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, unvaccinated people are 10 times more likely to be hospitalised and 11 times more likely to die from the virus.
Image credit: Facebook
This article first appeared on Over60.