Lincoln nurse gets vaccine on same day of brother’s death by COVID
A Lincoln nurse says his brother died from COVID-19 on the same day he received the vaccine. He hopes that by sharing his story, others will see the importance of getting the vaccine.
LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) – James Oxford, a registered nurse at Bryan East, was hours away from getting his COVID-19 vaccination when he found out his brother, Joe, had died from the virus.
“Like a lot of us, life happens and you have health issues. Well, he had a heart attack a couple years back and he wasn’t as healthy, and it was because of this that he was more susceptible to the virus,” Oxford says about his brother, who was just 55 at the time of his death.
Before the news of Joe’s death, Tuesday started out as a good day for Oxford and his wife, Jennifer.
As the pandemic continues to grip the Lincoln community, Jennifer, who works for Ameritas, had the idea to put together care packages filled with donations from local businesses in an effort to thank healthcare workers a lift spirits in the community.
Over the course of a month, 3,000 donations along with hand-written letters from students and community members poured in, and Tuesday was the day Jennifer was finally able to bring the bundles to hospitals and urgent care centers.
“It was a pretty exciting day for us here that all of that came to fruition,” James says. “But shortly after I went to work, I find out that my brother had died from COVID. So here we went from the highest of highs to the lowest of lows.”
Jennifer delivered the cheerful care packages for frontline workers before returning home to grieve with James.
“I had an appointment later that day to get my COVID vaccine shot, and I thought about, you know, ‘should I delay it and not do it?’ but I thought this was going to be a way to honor him and get that vaccine shot, and show people that this is an important thing,” says Oxford.
Oxford had the nurse who administered the shot for him write “For Joe” on the band-aid.
Oxford works on a surgical floor of Bryan East, and is often face to face with patients suffering from COVID-19. Although he knows the seriousness of the deadly virus, it was after his brothers passing on Tuesday that he says it felt even more real.
“When he died, it accentuated the importance of getting the shot. I know a lot of people are hesitant and say they’ll get it after a year or two because its new. . .people need to realize that we need to get this vaccine because its going to be up to 50% of people getting the shot before we see an actual impact, and 75-85% of people getting it before we return to normal and I think that’s what everybody wants.”
Oxford says it’s frustrating to know that many people are questioning the validity and effectiveness of the vaccine and are fearful of it rather than of the virus itself.
He tells Channel 8 that he hopes by sharing his story, people will understand how many lives can be saved by the vaccine, and people will honor those who died before they had the chance to be vaccinated by getting it themselves.
“That’s primarily what I want people to see more than anything, is this is a real thing, it’s not a hoax. This is real life. People close to you can and will die if we don’t take this seriously and do the things we’re supposed to do. That includes getting the vaccine shot.”
