Thread by @DrEricDing

Tragic—a mother lost **both** her sister and her 13 year old son Peyton to #COVID19. The bereaved mom took the bold step to publicly share the chilling images of her son’s blood-spattered hospital room in a bid to urge Americans to take COVID seriously.
the-sun.com/news/1995186/s…

2) “Stephanie Franek, 44, watched as doctors battled to save her son Peyton Baumgarth's life as the treatment to oxygenate his blood failed.
The youngster passed away just 6 days after developing symptoms of infection when he became extremely fatigued & his nail beds turned blue.

3) The mom-of-two endured another Covid loss when her sister Cyndi Crawford, 57, died five weeks after Peyton in the ICU.
Stephanie, a nurse from St Louis, Missouri, said: "One loss would have been heartbreaking alone but these two have completely shattered our hearts."

4) “Stephanie was horrified to discover that her son's oxygen levels had plummeted to just 44 per cent - a healthy person's blood oxygen levels are between 95 to 100 per cent.
"As a nurse, I have never seen someone walking and talking with an oxygen saturation level of just 44%

5) “We had only been in the ER for probably one hour when doctors decided they needed to put him on a ventilator."

While Peyton suffered from a thyroid problem and had asthma, she did not consider him particularly at risk from the respiratory infection.

6) “I was scared he was going to be put on a ventilator but I also thought we'll get over this hump and bring him home."
Doctors treated Peyton w/ extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) where blood is temporarily removed from the body to allow artificial oxygenation of blood”

7) “His condition worsened suddenly—he began to hemorrhage.
"He had this big coughing fit & he basically started to hemorrhage in his chest.
"The surgeons were trying to replace ECMO & doing CPR to help circulate his blood—his pulse was so weak & his oxygen levels were so low."

8) As doctors desperately tried to replace the ECMO tubes in Peyton’s neck, the blood that had pooled in his chest sprayed over the walls.
Stephanie said: “It was all over the cardiothoracic surgeon and he just kept working.”

9) “Stephanie, who had been granted special permission to be in the hospital as she had Covid, watched as 10 nurses and four doctors battled for an hour and 15 minutes to save her son's life before calling the time of death.”

10) “"Never did I ever think this was going to happen,” Stephanie said.
"You don't hear about kids getting Covid and it being that serious.
"I was just in shock.
"I can't describe that sudden devastating loss."

11) “Adding to Stephanie's pain, her sister Cyndi, a trauma registrar, came down with Covid a week before Thanksgiving.
She was also put on a ventilator and received ECMO but she passed away on December 7.”