After being turned away twice for COVID-19 testing, 30-year-old teacher, Rana Zoe Mungin, in Brooklyn has died of Coronavirus after she was diagnosed with the virus.
Rana Zoe , was confirmed dead by her mother after she battled coronavirus in the hospital for more than one month.
According to her family, Rana Zoe was twice denied COVID-19 testing at Brooklyn’s Brookdale Hospital despite repeated pleas for help and exhibiting various symptoms of the coronavirus. One of her friends also stated that Rana Zoe condition was dismissed as a “panic attack” by an EMT.
Her sister, Mia Mungin, a registered New York City nurse, has been chronicling her sister’s journey across social media for more than a month, and said “she fought a long fight but her body was too weak.”
“Racism and health disparities still continues … [and] the zip code in which we live still predetermines the type of care we receive,” Mia Mungin wrote on Facebook about the racial disparities in the health care system and the care received by her sister, who was black.
“She died not only because of COVID-19, but because we live in a world that is racist and anti-black,” her friend for more than a decade, Nohemi Maciel, told ABC News. “We know that black people are dying at disproportionate rates. This cannot be left out of the conversation.”
“I’m heartbroken and don’t know how to live in a world without Zoe. But I’m also angry. I’m angry that her students lost a wonderful and committed teacher, because representation matters,” Maciel added.
It is with heavy heart that I have to inform you all that my sister Rana Zoe Maybe has passed away today at 12:25pm due to COVID-19 complication. She fought a long fight but her body was to weak. 😞😪
— mia mungin (@MiaMungin) April 27, 2020
Lauren Calihman, who met Mungin during her freshman year at Wellesley College, said;
“Imagine if Zoe had received treatment consistent with the severity of her symptoms, rather than receiving treatment consistent with her origins,” said Calihman.
“She was the kind of person so captivating and sincere in her dealings with others and her writing that she naturally attracted a following, and scores of friends and admirers recently fought tooth and nail for her without ever having met her,” Calihman added.