MaryMo: 5 Unknown Facts About Ghanaian Nurse Who Died of Coronavirus in UK

The 28-year-old pregnant nurse passed away after an emergency caesarean section at the Luton and Dunstable hospital, where she had been on admission for five days.Mary tested positive for coronavirus on April 5 and was admitted to the hospital on April 7 but needed an emergency caesarean section to save her daughter, who has been named after her.She had reportedly stopped working 28 weeks into her pregnancy as permitted by UK’s health guidance, but her death has increased calls for ‘all pregnant women to stay off the frontline.’The deceased nurse has drawn glowing tributes from her colleagues at work, with UK Health Secretary, Matt Hancock describing her story as “a terrible one.”But who is Mary Agyeiwaa Agyapong? Here are five key facts about her life and situations leading to her death. Mary lived with her father and step-mom Elizabeth Agyapong, but her natural mother lived in Agogo in the Asante Akyim North Municipality of the Ashanti region of Ghana.She joined her father in Britain to finish her education when she was a teenager. The late Ms Agyapong, affectionately called MaryMo, went to school in Wellingborough before attending University in Luton to study nursing.She worked as a general nurse for five years at Luton and Dunstable University Hospital prior to her untimely death.Mary’s father, Stephen Agyapong died of suspected coronavirus just two weeks before his daughter, family sources have told local media.He reportedly had an underlying high blood pressure which aggravated his situation after contracting the novel coronavirus.Mr Agyapong had been a teacher in Ghana but took on manual work after travelling to seek greener pastures in Europe.Before she died, Mary had been working on ward 12 of the Luton and Dunstable hospital – which has since become a Covid-19 ward.It is still not clear how and when she caught the virus, but authorities say they did not have any coronavirus patients at Luton and Dunstable Hospital before the 28-year-old took maternity leave on March 12, when she was 28 weeks pregnant.The young nurse is survived by her husband, Ernest Boateng and two children, a three-year-old son AJ and the new born Mary Agyeiwaa Agyapong.Test results of her newborn baby has not been released but Ms Agyapong’s husband is currently self-isolating and has also been tested for COVID-19.A fundraising appeal launched in memory of Mary Agyeiwaa Agyapong raised over GH1.2million (approximately £170,000) within the first 48 hours, exceeding initial target by 8,500 percent.The GOFUNDME campaign initiated by three of Mary’s friends, Rhoda Asiedu, Gloria Gyan and Wendy Addai, aims to generate seed money for a trust fund in support of her immediate family.