After watching her 46-year-old son, who had refused vaccinations, die of COVID-19, a Louisiana woman turned his memorial service into a vaccine drive.
Betty Antoine of Baton Rouge wanted to keep other families from having to deal with the loss of a loved one to the coronavirus.
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Antoine’s son, Brandon Haynes, didn’t believe enough research had been done to warrant the COVID vaccine’s safety. But Haynes also suffered from heart and lung issues and COPD, and had been urged by his doctor to get vaccinated, according to his mother.
"And he loved his doctor to death, but he told her no, he wasn't going to take it," Antoine told CNN.
So for Haynes’s memorial service, Antoine asked a friend who handled vaccinations for a Baton Rouge hospital to be present and ready to give out shots to anyone who requested them.
Antoine says three people took her up on it and others have gotten vaccinated since.
She says her son’s friends held him in high regard. "So when he was against the vaccine, they all did not take the vaccine, because Brandon said, 'Don't take the vaccine,'" Antoine said. "So they're going now. They're going to take the vaccine, because Brandon died from the virus.”
Haynes was hospitalized with breathing issues on June 3 and died six days later.
"I just want people to know it can happen to you. I never thought that it would never happen to me, but it can happen to you. And once you lose a loved one, for a reason that he could have been saved. It really hurts," Antoine said.
