Metro Atlanta woman dies of COVID-19 complications before getting chance to hold newborn

ATLANTA — The heartbroken family of a metro Atlanta woman who gave birth to a baby boy before dying from COVID-19 complications is hoping to use their loved ones death to urge pregnant women to get vaccinated.

Marrisha “ReRe” Kindred Jenkins, 27, of Avondale Estates, was just one month shy of her due date when doctors diagnosed her with COVID-19 and pneumonia.

Three days later, on Sept. 7, she and her husband Myles, welcomed their first child into this world. Jaylen was healthy, but premature and immediately put into quarantine without his mother getting the chance to hold him.

“She was just loving,” Myles Jenkins said. “You just felt happy every time you got around her.”

After spending two weeks in quarantine, Marrisha and Myles were finally cleared to see their little bundle of joy. On Sunday, they were preparing to head to the hospital when Marrisha stopped breathing.

“She said, ‘mom, they said my lungs are clear’ and they sent her home,” said Marrisha’s mom, Helena Kindred. " We said she has some issues but I wasn’t expecting what happened to her.

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Marrisha’s family prayed for a medical miracle, but on Thursday, they made the difficult decision of taking her off life support.

“Myles was doing CPR before they got there and she coded in the ambulance and when they got her to the hospital, she coded again,” said Kindred. “At that time, with no oxygen to the brain, it caused severe damage.”

Kindred believes there may have been a different outcome had Marrisha been vaccinated.

“If she had been vaccinated, I truly believe she would not have died,” said Kindred.

Marrisha and her husband, Myles, didn’t have insurance, so now family and close friends have launched a GoFundMe page to help pay for her funeral and support her baby and two other children, Aiden, 5 and Rylee, 6.

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