A Kent family’s brush with death

Leighann Fink picks up her mother, Mary Ann Fink, from Summa Health after her weeks’ long recovery from Covid-19 on Saturday, Dec. 12, 2020. Mary Ann first felt symptoms of the virus in November following the infection of her daughter and husband. While they recovered with mild symptoms, Mary Ann fell gravely ill. She would have died, she said, if Leighann hadn’t urged her to seek hospital treatment. After being denied hospitalization three times due to the Akron City Hospital’s limited capacity, Mary Ann was admitted when her oxygen levels dropped to about 70 percent.

A Kent family’s brush with death

- Michael Indriolo

Mary Ann Poplaski gasped for breath atop the stairs at her daughter’s home in Kent. She had ventured from her bed, where she spent much of the previous week battling Covid-19, to help her grandson in the bathroom in the middle of the night. She could barely make it out of her room. Her upper lip was turning blue as she called for help.

“We almost lost my mom,” said Poplaski’s daughter, Leighann Fink. “We were lucky.”

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