NEW ORLEANS — After a personal loss for her family, a local mother is feeling a strong call to action.
So she's taking matters into her own hands, and raising awareness that the pain her family is going through, is preventable.
Chris Scott loved to make lists. At the very top of his Christmas 2020 wish list to his wife, was getting a COVID vaccine when the couple became eligible.
“When he wrote that I was like, ‘Well of course we're going to get vaccinated. Why would you even put that on your list because I can't get you that for Christmas,’” Tina Scott remembers.
As Mardi Gras 2021 approached, 50-year-olds like Chris still did not qualify for the COVID vaccine. He and his wife Tina caught the virus. She got better. He got worse. Tina brought him to the hospital.
“And while I'm waving to him, why the heck am I waving to him? I'm going to come back and pick him up tomorrow,” she thought to herself. “And of course that didn't, didn't happen.”
As Chris was hooked up to breathing devices, in the final days the couple “talked” by text. On March 3, Tina lost her husband. Their high school children lost a dad.
“And now what I know is that it's a horrific way to die. “You're completely and utterly alone.”
Friends started telling her Chris' death moved them to get a vaccine. She wanted to continue that inspiration. So she asked her production friend at Elephant Quilt Productions, to record a one-minute message.
The video starts off, “Chris was a best friend, coworker, a car guy, a football fan, a sportsman, a little brother, and loving son, a devoted dad and husband. And now Chris is a statistic.”
She understands some people just don't want the COVID vaccine.
“And that's OK, but it's also, it's really OK to change your mind. People still have the mindset it happens to other people. Well, it didn't. It happened to us,” she said.
Chris literally died waiting to get vaccinated.
The video continues, “Chris couldn't get vaccinated, but you can. Getting vaccinated saves lives. Please choose life and get vaccinated today.”
Ochsner will begin airing Tina's public service announcement today. She is hoping that other hospitals will do the same.
