Russia’s youngest coronavirus victim who was working from home and looking after children before she succumbed to the disease, posted updates of her illness while losing her fight for life.
Anastasia Petrova, 36, editor of a business magazine in Perm city, first got a fever on 23 March and died eight days later, becoming Russia’s youngest victim.
The single mother kept posting as long as she could while she rapidly succumbed to the deadly coronavirus, highlighting how quickly the disease can lead to a fatality.
Anastasia Petrova, 36, has become the youngest recorded fatal victim of the COVID-19 novel coronavirus in Russia, after succumbing to the disease while working from home and caring for her two sons last week
Anastasia, pictured in an undated photo, was a journalist and editor and continued to post updates on her social media as she lost her life to the deadly virus in Russia
Pictured: An intensive care ward prepared for patients of the coronavirus in Perm, Russia
Like millions around the world, the single mother was working from home caring for her two beloved sons Ilya, 12, and Yaroslav, 10.
On Monday last week she was optimistic, posting: ‘Today I had the first day of my holiday.
‘Well, almost a vacation – I cheerfully trained for an online lecture.’
She attacked ‘Covidiots’ who gathered in a crowd of more than 150.
By evening her fever rose and next day she had a sore throat and serious cough.
Pictured: Perm Medical-Sanitary Unit in Perm, Russia where Anastasia died after a short battle with the deadly coronavirus last week
‘I called a doctor, and reported on my contacts with people who had arrived back from abroad .
‘I have three of them, but everyone came more than 14 days ago.
‘But on the phone I heard the words: ‘Oh hell …’…Now I am waiting for a doctor.’
She was told to take her temperature every 20 minutes and swallow paracetamol.
‘You can see how it drops from 38.4C to 37.3C,’ she wrote hopefully.
‘I believe it’s just ARVI (Acute Respiratory Viral Infection), by the way (not Coronavirus).’
By evening she added: ‘My favourite local doctor came (really favourite, the first one in my practice with whom I can communicate very calmly and who does not faint when I say ‘I’m allergic to penicillin).’
‘She didn’t come right in, asking about the symptoms while standing about one metre [3.2f] from me.
‘She promised they would come and take a test on corona and asked not to leave home for 14 days, or at least until I had a negative test.’
The doctor doubted it was coronavirus. ‘We giggled about issuing me a sick note…for ARVI …she had visited 32 sick people today.’
Although ill, Anastasia was still paying attention to world events and had kept her sense of humour.
Referring to aid sent by Vladimir Putin, she asked: ‘Listen, why is everyone criticising Russia’s assistance to Italy in the fight against coronavirus?’
Pictured: The acting chief of Perm Region, Dmitry Makhonin, said: ‘We must not lie to the people’, in response to accusations that officials had covered up the cause of Anastasia’s death last week
She wrote that ‘thousands’ were dying there while Russia ‘had everything under control…
‘These doctors we sent to Italy will later be able to save Russian patients.
‘This is perhaps one of the “helping” actions of our government with which I completely agree.’
The night of 24 March she was already in hospital after her fever soared.
‘The resuscitators came with a ventilator, very cool and professional,’ she wrote from her intensive care bed.
‘They wear masks for snorkelling, by the way. In addition to masks for their mouth and nose.’
They measured the oxygen in her blood and was told ‘so far I do not need their help, but, in general, I am at risk.
Pictured: Anastasia poses in an undated photograph. The 38-year-old continued to post to her social media during her final days, highlighting the lack of proper PPE being used by medical staff
‘They ordered me to continue breathing oxygen.
‘And if anything – they are nearby and will be here in five minutes. If I feel worse….
‘They told me how they have treated swine flu – and that mainly pregnant women were brought to them.
‘They cursed that the ambulance crews do not use full protection when on emergency calls.’
She posted with a note of alarm: ‘When a resuscitator [doctor] looks thoughtfully at the printout of your analysis, it’s actually very scary.
‘My temperature was brought down to 38C.’
Later Anastasia posted to her friends: ‘Neither I nor the doctors think that it is coronavirus – the totality of symptoms suggests both this and ordinary flu.
‘The doctors made the decision about hospitalisation based on the state of my lungs, a very high temperature and my anamnesis [medical history].’
She added: ‘No strength, I sleep 90 per cent of the time.’
On 27 March she posted that her test was negative for coronavirus.
But later her friend revealed Anastasia messaged her the following day, with alarm in her voice: ‘Yulia, my second test was positive. I feel very bad.’
This was her last communication and she died on Tuesday.
Not for the first time in Russia, there is a suspicion that her death was being listed as something other than coronavirus.
Pictured: Marina Shilova, Anastasia’s mother, pictured in an undated photograph, who will look after Anastasia’s two beloved sons Ilya, 12, and Yaroslav, 10
This prompted a furious reaction from the acting governor of Perm region Dmitry Makhonin who said: ‘The death of journalist Anastasia Petrova has caused a great public outcry.
‘If it was known that she had coronavirus, why are they silent about this?
‘It is unacceptable to hide information from the public.
‘We must not lie to the people.’
Anastasia’s two sons are reported to be negative for coronavirus and will be raised by her mother, Marina, also an editor.
A friend called Tatyana Cherepanova posted a public message to the distraught Marina, 58, saying that Anastasia was ‘unusually gifted, talented, with such a fine mental abilities’.
She told the bereft Marina: ‘You must now raise your grandchildren, cherish your memories of your daughter, and edit your newspaper …
‘You are very strong.
‘You can do it. May God give you strength.’