Brooklyn, NY — Rana Zoe Mungin, a 30-year old social studies teacher at Ascend Academy in Brooklyn, New York, has died after being on life support for about a month. She was reportedly repeatedly denied the coronavirus test despite her being rushed to the hospital 3 times and showing worsening symptoms.
On March 15, Rana started having fever, shortness of breath, and severe headache, her sister Mia Mungin told PIX11. “They gave her albuterol for asthma and gave her a shot of Toradol for her headache.” But she wasn’t tested for COVID-19.
Three days passed and her shortness of breath continued but she refused to go to the hospital. On March 19, she had to be taken to the hospital by ambulance where she was only given a nebulizer treatment. One of the attendants insisted that her lungs are clear and that she is just having a panic attack.
When she arrived at the hospital for the 2nd time, Mia recalled that the doctor said, “Her lungs are clear. We’re not going to test for corona, because we don’t have enough tests.”
The next day, Rana had to be returned by ambulance to the hospital because “she wasn’t breathing,” Mia said. Her family wasn’t allowed to enter and were only told that she was intubated and on a ventilator.
Mia, who is a registered nurse, expressed her guilt, saying she thinks she was the one who passed the coronavirus to Rana. She said she was the one exposed to another patient who had a fever on March 9. Since then, she herself also didn’t feel well and might have unintentionally coughed on Rana.
Meanwhile, her family is fighting for her to get access to better treatments in other hospitals, but they have been turned down.