La Marque couple hospitalized with COVID wishes they got vaccinated, family says

LA MARQUE, Texas (KTRK) — A husband and wife say they wish they would’ve gotten the vaccine before they ended up hospitalized with COVID.

Family members said Lydia Rodriguez and her husband Lawrence were both admitted to the hospital nearly three weeks ago with the virus.

“We’ve been told they are very, very, very, very sick is what the doctor told us,” said her cousin, Dottie Jones. “And if they do survive, it’s going to be a long, long road.”

Jones said the couple had not been vaccinated for COVID-19.

“They didn’t believe in vaccines,” said Jones. “And you try to talk to them, and she just didn’t like that. Didn’t trust it, I guess.”

Once she was in ICU, Lydia changed her mind about the vaccine and asked to get it, but doctors told her it was too late.

“Before she got intubated, one of the last things she told her sister was ‘Please make sure my children get vaccinated,'” Jones said. “It’s hard to do that in hindsight. To think that she wouldn’t be there, she would be there for her kids right now if she had been vaccinated.”

Jones says she shares this in hopes of other families not ending up like hers.

“I just am tired of the anti-vax rhetoric that is causing so many, like my cousin and her family, to not get vaccinated,” she said.

As Lydia and Lawrence remain in the ICU on ventilators, Jones and other family members are helping with the Rodriguez’s four children. A GoFundMe has been set up to help with medical costs and bills.

“Our hearts are just broken,” said Jones. “We hurt for the kids. We hurt for them and we just want them better and home.”