Suspected COVID-19 patient relapses and dies in front of helpless wife and child

The father-of-one collapsed with breathing difficulties in his home and died on his way to the hospital.

Portsmouth resident Dom Merrix chose not to get tested for novel coronavirus but isolated himself when he showed symptoms. Just when Dom thought he was on the way to recovery after he started feeling better, he suddenly had breathing difficulties last Thursday. He passed away before he could reach the hospital.

The 48-year-old aspiring football coach started showing symptoms of COVID-19 two weeks before his death. The family decided to let Dom self-isolate in the downstairs living space of the Portsmouth home while wife Sarah and daughter Ellie-Mai occupied the upstairs area of the home.

Dom had reportedly recovered from the symptoms and started to feel better. On Thursday however, Sarah received a text from Dom asking her to help him. Before the text to Sarah, Dom had texted his 10-year-old daughter to come and open the window of his room as he was unable to breathe.

When the 44-year-old woman went to her husband's room, she saw him on his hands and knees on the floor. Since morning, Dom's health had rapidly declined to the point where he was unable to breathe. Sarah called 999 and paramedics arrived shortly after the emergency call. When the paramedics put Dom on the trolley and asked him to lean back, he could not because he was having difficulty breathing.

Dom eventually had a heart attack and paramedics tried to get his heart beating again. Ellie-Mai watched from the home as her father was laid out in front of the house while the medics tried to revive him. Family friend Rachel Hibbert on behalf of the Merrix family released a statement about the incident. She shared that Dom did not make it to Queen Alexandra Hospital. Even though Dom was not officially diagnosed to be COVID-19 positive, his friends and family believe that he was infected with the novel coronavirus.

Hibbert also created a fundraiser to help the family with the cost of Dom's funeral. The Portsmouth Football Club fan will be laid to rest in a blue Pompey casket, the Daily Mail reported.