Page 11 - IAV Digital Magazine #496

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Michigan Woman Asked ‘Alexa’ For Help Before Her Death From COVID-19
By WWJ NEWS
(WWJ) A Michigan woman who died of COVID-19 while in a nursing home made pleas for help to her Alexa device.
LouAnn Dagen, 66, passed away Saturday in the Emergency Room at Mercy Health Saint
Mary’s in Grand Rapids.
Her sister, Penny Dagen, told WWJ Newsradio
950's Ron Dewey that, during the last few days of her life, LouAnn repeatedly asked her Amazon Echo for help.
Alexa, help me,” and “Can you help me cope
with pain?” she begged. Another time she said, “Oh, Alexa, I’m going to hurt," and once
asked if Alexa could call the police.
Penny Dagen said her heart broke when
she discovered the recordings on the Alexa app after her sister's
death. "I just felt so bad," she told Dewey, through tears, "because I couldn't help her. I couldn't protect her."
Penny Dagen said her
sister struggled with diabetes and hypertension throughout her life. She suffered a stroke almost a decade ago and
had lived
at Metron of Cedar Springs since that time. According to the medical examin- er’s office, her death was caused by “coro- navirus infection, diabetes and hypertension.”
What was she like? Penny Dagen said LouAnn was very talented and enjoyed preform- ing for others. "She could play the guitar, she sang, she played the organ and
the piano. She was even a ven- triloquist," Penny Dagen said. "She would go around to different churches and bring her puppets with her...She even wrote a chil- dren's book and had it published."
LouAnn Dagen was one of 31 residents and five staff members who tested posi- tive for COVID- 19 at the nursing home, and was the first to die.
Penny Dagen said her sister would want oth- ers to understand the coronavirus is real, and to heed the warnings.
"They need to lis- ten to the news media about how infections this virus is, and it's very painful. At least it was for my sister; she was in such agony," she said. "And you need to think of others, you know? Because this virus is nothing to fool around with. It's deadly."
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