Young widow shares her loss to urge vaccination

Chasity Reeves of Huntsville hopes losing her 29-year-old husband to covid-19 will inspire people to get vaccinated.

Caleb Reeves was young and had no underlying health conditions. He died Aug. 9, five weeks after he first tested positive for the virus, his wife said. His funeral service took place on his farm in Huntsville.

"No other place felt quite right," she said.

The high school sweethearts married four years ago. They felt they were too young and healthy to worry about getting vaccinated, Chasity Reeves said.

Caleb Reeves' illness started as a fever and a headache. He went to the emergency room after a week. He spent the next 30 days in the hospital, 25 on a ventilator, his wife said.

At times doctors told her they didn't expect him to survive the day. Then he would improve, only to be hit by more setbacks, she said.

Chasity Reeves said she realized the importance of vaccinations when she learned most of the patients with her husband in the covid-19 unit at Washington Regional Medical Center in Fayetteville were young, healthy people in their 20s and 30s who weren't vaccinated.

"The virus doesn't just affect older people; it can affect younger people," she said. "Do what you need to protect yourself and avoid the situation that we've had to go through."

Reeves appears in a Facebook video for the hospital, urging people to get vaccinated.

"I know with all of the misnformation out there it is really difficult to decide to get vaccinated or not, but I can assure you from this experience that it's a much more difficult decision in your 20s and 30s to decide how you want to bury your spouse," she says in the video.

Younger patients

The average age of patients in covid-19 units has gone down during the latest surge, according to Dr. Lindsey Barnes, a pulmonary and critical care physician at Medical Associates of Northwest Arkansas, who works in the covid-19 unit at Washington Regional.

"We are seeing many people in the ICU in their 20s, 30s and 40s," she said. "Those people are requiring a ventilator."

Almost 91% of hospitalized covid-19 patients are unvaccinated, according to the Arkansas Department of Health.

None of the younger, healthy patients Barnes has treated in the hospital are vaccinated for covid-19, she said. Of the 8% to 10% of hospitalized patients who are vaccinated, most are immunocompromised or on medications such as chemotherapy or prednisone that affect their immune systems. There are a few people over the age of 70 who are vaccinated with a normal immune system in the hospital, but they are the minority, she said.

After surviving covid-19, William and Rebecca Hughes of Prairie Grove also urge others to get their vaccines.

The 32-year-old couple, like the Reeveses, didn't get vaccinated because they thought their risk was low. They were young and healthy, with no underlying health conditions.

William Hughes is still recovering, so Rebecca Hughes told their story.

The couple got sick in late June, and William Hughes spent two weeks in July in the intensive care unit at Washington Regional. Rebecca Hughes suffered severe symptoms but didn't have to be hospitalized, she said.

"I want people to know, you don't know how it is going to affect you," she said. "That is what is so scary. We both feel very strongly about the vaccine."

During William Hughes' hospital stay, doctors told his wife they didn't know if he was going to live. The couple has a 4-year-old daughter.

It was hard to hear -- very scary and traumatizing, she said.

Rebecca Hughes said in retrospect she feels their mindset about the vaccine was selfish. The couple plans to get vaccinated as soon as they are eligible, she said.

"I can't understand why people are so hesitant about a vaccine," she said.

Reasons for hesitating

Northwest Arkansas residents noted questions about safety, possible side effects and the speed vaccines were developed as their top concerns and reasons for hesitating to get the covid-19 vaccine, according to a survey in May.

The research was conducted by inVeritas, a national research firm based in Arkansas, and commissioned by the Northwest Arkansas Council Heath Care Transformation Division in partnership with Benton and Sebastian counties.

A followup survey conducted in July and August showed much of the same information, according to Ryan Cork, executive director of the council's Transformation Division. Other reasons for not wanting the vaccine included lack of trust in government agencies, the emergency use authorization and a wait-and-see attitude.

Some people said they didn't know where or how to get a vaccine, Cork said.

The council used the survey results to develop an information and education campaign and is also working to bring vaccination clinics to the communities.

The council worked with other organizations to host mass vaccination events in February, drawing thousands of people a day, Cork said. Attendance dwindled to 50 or 100 individuals in May and June, he said.

So the council pivoted to a new strategy of taking vaccine clinics to the people. Over the summer, the council facilitated an average of one pop-up clinic a day, at locations such as apartment complexes, the Bentonville Farmers Market and the Rogers Frisco Festival.

It plans to continue the clinics this fall at venues such as Razorback home football games, concerts at the Arkansas Music Pavilion and the Siloam Springs Public Library, Cork said.

Reasons to vaccinate

Both Caleb Reeves and William Hughes probably would have avoided the hospital if they had been vaccinated, Barnes said.

The delta variant is much more contagious than earlier versions of the virus, with each positive person infecting an average of seven other people, compared to two or three during the original wave, she said.

It's also important to protect young children who aren't eligible to be vaccinated because covid-19 can have complications for them, such as multisystem inflammatory syndrome, she said.

Pregnant women especially should get vaccinated because immunization prevents death and preterm labor from covid-19 and also helps provide immunity for the infant after birth, Barnes said.

It's normal for patients to be scared and skeptical, but Barnes said vaccines are incredibly well studied with millions and millions of doses given.

"We know that covid-19 causes more complications than the vaccines, and so you are much safer getting the vaccine than getting covid," she said.

Chasity Reeves encourages people to turn off the political side of the vaccine debate and get information about immunization from their doctors or from front-line health care workers like Barnes.

"Get the vaccine for yourself and for the lady sitting next to you in church and for your neighbor who may need the hospital in the middle of the night," Barnes said. "I can't think of a good reason not to get vaccinated."