Pandemic: Heartbreaking moment as mom removes mask to tell daughter she loves her one last time

Maria Rico, 76, knew she was living out her final moments after being diagnosed with Coronavirus along with her whole family. As she lay in her bed, she had one last wish. She asked the doctors if she could remove her oxygen mask, hold her daughter's hand, and tell her one last time that she loved her. Her daughter, Anabel Sharma, had also contracted the virus. They had been admitted to a Coronavirus ward at Leicester Royal Infirmary. Doctors moved their beds close so the pair could hold hands. Doctors warned Maria Rico that she wouldn't have much time after she took off the mask but she was ready. Anabel Sharma said her mother told her things you'd want to hear a parent say before they passed away. A photo captured a quiet moment the pair shared. "When they took us to mum she asked them to remove her mask and they said to her as soon as we do this you aren’t going to have very long and she just nodded," said Anabel later on Good Morning Britain. "We did have five minutes with her. She just said everything that you would want your mother to say. She said she loved us, was proud of us, and I had to keep fighting to get home to my children, and, equally we told her we would hold her hands until she fell unconscious and we held her hands until she passed away," added Anabel Sharma, reported The Mirror. 

“I was really fortunate. After that photograph was taken my mum had to be taken back to her bed because they'd removed her from her monitors to come and speak to me," said Anabel, reported The Sun. Maria Rico died on November 1. She couldn't attend her mother's funeral either and had to watch it online. "Too unwell to attend her funeral, I watched it via live stream. I was alone, as were my family, we couldn’t comfort each other, it broke my already fragile heart," said Anabel. She posted the image online and wrote, "Don't let this be you."

It all started after Anabel's son contracted the virus at school in September. Her husband Bharat, and their other sons Jacob, 22, and Noah, 10, had also contracted the virus. Anabel left the hospital a month later but her lungs were severely damaged and now required oxygen to move around. During her stay at the hospital, she had to wear a plastic hood 24/7 for four weeks that forced oxygen into her lungs. "It felt like sticking your head out of a car going at 30mph, it was noisy, I couldn’t see, hear, and they fed me though an opening on the side of the hood," said Anabel.

She is now hoping to warn others about the dangers of the disease. “My message certainly would be that for me, I genuinely thought if I was to catch the virus it wouldn't affect me as much as it did. Even when the ambulances arrived to take us to the hospital and I was wheeled up to intensive care, I remember asking the doctors if I was going to die. I genuinely expected them to say no... his answer was that he didn't know whether I was going to die or not. That for me was the moment I thought everything was over,” said Anabel.

With Coronavirus cases spiking, she warned that finding a hospital bed could be difficult as she found it. "We only got our beds because four patients died that day, freeing up spaces," said Anabel. "My nightmares are terrifying and I wake up screaming and crying, I don’t feel like me anymore! I can’t walk 5 meters without getting breathless and am fatigued all the time. I am sharing this in the hope you think twice about your choices." 

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