Unvaccinated dad dies of COVID in Texas months after child is born. ‘Cautionary tale’

Had he known about the risks of the delta variant, Texas father Will Brooks likely would have gotten a COVID-19 vaccine, his wife said.

But before he was aware of how the variant affects people in his age group, the 42-year-old Tomball father contracted it in late July. Within weeks Brooks was dead from the virus — which has now claimed the lives of more than 53,000 Texans.

“He is the cautionary tale he needed, and I wish more than anything he could have stayed safe just until it hit the news, because then he’d be vaccinated and safe,” his wife, Katherine Brooks, wrote on Facebook last week while her husband was hospitalized with the virus.

Initially thinking it was allergies and later just a cold, Will Brooks tested positive for COVID-19 on July 26. He was admitted to the hospital July 30 and doctors told Katherine Brooks he would “need to be there for a few days.”

But on Aug. 5, Will Brooks was transferred to the ICU and, within a week, he was intubated at the hospital, which had a full ICU by that point, Katherine Brooks said.

“Again. Louder for the people in the back. Get. The Damn. Vaccine,” Katherine Brooks wrote Aug. 11.

Will Brooks was the father of a newborn daughter, Carter, who was born in April. As the 42-year-old was in a medically-induced coma on life support and dialysis, his wife pleaded on Facebook for her husband’s recovery.

“I don’t want Carter to grow up without her father,” Katherine Brooks wrote Aug. 13.

His odds of surviving were less than 5%, with a nurse telling Katherine Brooks her husband was the “sickest patient in the hospital.”

Will Brooks, who according to KHOU was a veteran employed as a security officer, died Aug. 16. Katherine Brooks said her husband was the strongest person she knew.

Katherine Brooks, who is vaccinated, said she and her daughter Carter never got the virus. Now she is continuing to encourage others to get the shot.

“There are a lot of people who are hesitant to get vaccinated,” she told KHOU. “The original virus was like getting a really bad cold, really bad flu, but that’s just not the case anymore.”

The delta variant is driving a surge in COVID-19 cases and deaths in Texas and across the United States. Across Texas, between 93% and 98% of people hospitalized with the virus are unvaccinated, according to the Texas Tribune.

Vaccination rates in Texas have increased since mid-July, but just 54.7% of eligible Texans ages 12 and up are fully vaccinated as of Aug. 19.

This story was originally published August 19, 2021 at 7:26 AM with the headline "Unvaccinated dad dies of COVID in Texas months after child is born. ‘Cautionary tale’."