A mother with Covid-19 held a picture of her newborn baby she had never met before dying from the illness in the UK.
Fozia Hanif was diagnosed with coronavirus soon after celebrating her 29th birthday, prompting the premature birth of her son, Ayaan, on April 2, ITV reports.
Six days later, Ms Hanif’s family was told to come to Birmingham Heartlands Hospital to farewell the new mother, who was on a ventilator.
Her husband of seven years, Wajid Ali, said she had been "really happy" after receiving a photo the nurses had printed out for her.
“She was holding and say ‘look it’s our baby’ and ‘we’re going to come home soon’… that’s the last time I spoke to her," he said.
Ms Hanif had earlier been hospitalised after testing positive for the illness but had been soon discharged. However, her condition quickly deteriorated, and she was again hospitalised in isolation on a ventilator.
“From a joyous occasion, the next time we saw her she was struggling on a ventilator,” her father Nabil Hanif said.
Mr Hanif said hospital staff were going to turn off the ventilators, but he objected.
“I said 'no, don’t turn it off until we arrive. She’s a fighter, she can pull through'.
"But when we walked in and we saw Fozia… we just kept praying.”
Ms Hanif died on April 8, six days after her son was born by C-section.
Ayaan has tested negative for the illness. He remains in hospital.
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