Nurse Who Insisted Family Avoid Vaccine Despite Mother's Coma Dies of COVID Herself

A Registered Nurse in Idaho died last month after resisting the COVID-19 vaccine and becoming infected with the virus.

Natalie Rise began feeling COVID symptoms and was admitted into Kootenai Health's emergency room and died on August 22.

Her brother, Daryl Rise, spoke to KXLY about how the virus has impacted his family. Not only did his sister die, but his mother was in a medically induced COVID-related coma just down the hall from Natalie.

After his sister died, Rise said, the nurses at the hospital woke up their mother to share the news.

"Mom didn't even know that Natalie was in the hospital, and Natalie had written a letter the night before, to mom hoping she'd be able to go down in the critical care COVID unit to be able to see her, but that never happened," Rise told KXLY.

Natalie and her mother were both unvaccinated after Natalie encouraged the family to skip the jab. Her brother said his sister was swayed by misinformation to not get vaccinated.

Daryl said that even while Natalie was in the hospital she was still telling her brother not to get vaccinated. The day after she died, Daryl received a shot.

"I think things would've turned out differently with Natalie and mom had they been vaccinated," he told KXYL.

A report released from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention earlier this month showed that those who are unvaccinated are 10 times more likely to end up hospitalized due to the virus. The study also concluded that unvaccinated people were 11 times more likely to die from the virus, as previously reported by Newsweek.

Earlier this month, President Biden announced that there would be a COVID-19 vaccine requirement for companies with more than 100 employees, federal workers and contractors who do business with the federal government as well as the over 17 million healthcare workers at Medicaid and Medicare participating hospitals.

In July, Reuters reported that about 60 percent of the more than 42,000 employees of New York City's public hospital system are vaccinated and across the city, 70 percent of hospital staff had received both doses of the vaccine, according to state data.

That month, Mayor Bill De Blasio announced that starting August 2 anyone working in a city-run hospital or clinic would need to be vaccinated or weekly tested. Those who did not oblige would be suspended without pay.

As of September 21, 182 million people in the United States were fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to the CDC. About 2.24 million had received an additional dose of the vaccine, which as of August 13 was recommended for those who are moderately to severely immunocompromised.