By Anthony Wallace | Phoenix New Times
In her 60 years, nothing has brought Rita Lawlor closer to death than COVID-19.
On Friday, March 27, the former hospital nurse laid as a patient in a hospital bed as an infectious disease doctor told her, “We gotta get you through the next couple days.”
Over the weekend, she fought for her life. Isolated from her family, she battled excruciating shortness of breath — or as she and others call it, “air hunger” — and watched as her oxygen-level readings dipped to dangerous lows as she hovered on the precipice of ICU admission and ventilator intubation, which she knew would significantly reduce her chances of survival.
