Megan Richards.Photo: facebook
When Megan Richardsdied of COVID-19in November, she left behind a heartbroken husband and their six kids. One of those six included their 5-month-old son Myles, whom she planned to breastfeed through his first birthday.
Michael shared their story withtheir local Fox 4 stationin Missouri, and after hearing about Megan’s death and plans to breastfeed Myles, strangers from all over have donated breast milk to help the family.
“The first donation that we received came from a woman named Megan,” said Megan’s sister, Brittany Eppenauer. “It’s overwhelming to know that other moms care that much, to make sure that we can fulfill my sister’s wishes.”
In the weekssince her deathon Nov. 15, the family has received nearly 300 emails from women looking to donate and around 400 oz. of breast milk, plus a donated freezer to store it all.
Megan “was a perfect mother,” Michael said. “Everything she did was for the kids.”
“She was still breastfeeding. So [I was] trying to get her to stay in bed. And rest was difficult because she just wanted to do everything,” Michael told Fox 4. “But I think it was three or four days from her positive test, she started to get really sick.”
First, Myles' condition worsened and they took him to the hospital, where he was treated for dehydration and recovered well enough to come home. But the next day, Nov. 14, Megan’s health declined. She told Michael she needed to go to the hospital, but he found her passed out on the living room floor as he called 911.
“It was scary. I couldn’t get her to wake up and she wouldn’t answer me, and I didn’t know what to do,” he said.
They expected her to improve at the hospital, where she was diagnosed with pneumonia and dehydration, but the next day doctors called Michael and said that she was declining. When he got to the hospital, they were performing CPR on Megan as her heart struggled to keep up, and she died later that day at age 32.
Michael and his family are encouraging people to get vaccinated against COVID-19.
“I regret that I didn’t push her to get it,” he said.
Along with looking for breast milk donations, the family is raising money for Michael and the kidson GoFundMe. He said that he wishes he could tell Megan “that I loved her more than anything.”
“They had the best mother ever,” he said. “She did everything for them, and she lived with no regrets and she put them before anyone else.”
source: people.com
