Northport Mother, 41, Dies After Documenting COVID-19 Experience

TUSCALOOSA, AL — "I am not doing well. My oxygen is dangerously low without heavy mask pressure. I have double pneumonia, a clot in my lung. They are aggressively treating all the symptoms and hopefully I'll be on the road to recovery soon."

Kristy Fagan Pruet posted those words to Facebook on Aug. 17 from Ascension St. Vincent's in Clanton a day after being hospitalized. The Northport mother, wife and involved community member died two weeks later of complications after a lengthy battle with COVID-19.

She was 41.

"It was a shock," her husband, Damon Pruet, told Patch in an interview as he fought through the understandable range of emotions to recount the experience. "She had some issues they discovered in the hospital that complicated her COVID case, but she never had to go on a ventilator and had been removed from isolation. But we’re still almost in shock. I went to work that morning and had people asking how she’s doing …. Then that night she was gone."

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Kristy ran her own business, Ink & Olive, which specialized in graphic design. Among her projects with the business was designing the shirts for her son and his archery teammates at Tuscaloosa County High School. She was also the secretary of the Grand Pointe Homeowners Association and a well-known fixture in Northport, as was evidenced in the outpouring of support shown by those in the community following news of her death.

"We have an amazing church family at Safe Haven Church in Northport," Damon said. "They have been phenomenal and our neighbors have been amazing. Austin and I haven’t even had to think about food. Everyone has been feeding us, showering us with cards and prayers. They came out and prayed around our house. ... This has been the darkest two weeks of my life, but I don’t think I’ve ever felt more loved."

Kristy maintained a highly visible presence on Facebook and documented much of her COVID-19 experience and attitudes about the pandemic at large up until her death.

Less than a month after posting sun-filled vacation photos, memes and random or topical thoughts, Pruet posted on Aug. 12 when she tested positive for COVID-19, saying: "I'm not well. My humor is gone. My mind is all over the place. Your prayers coveted."

Two days later, she began posting and asking for suggestions to treat body aches brought on by the virus. Her husband confirmed that she had not received the COVID-19 vaccine, which has been shown in most cases to prevent or minimize acute symptoms even in breakthrough cases.

Damon said his wife had a particular phobia of doctors visits, to the point of soldiering through an ankle sprain and not scheduling routine checkups. But she was also a staunch mask-wearer, practiced social distancing and worked from home.

"If there is any one thing that I personally would want people to do differently, it's take care of preventative health visits," Damon said. "The vaccine isn't enough. People should be getting out in the evening and walking and going to the doctor for their screens and checkups. A little preventative health effort on her part could have made a huge difference."

A professional photographer with an eye for detail, she managed to still display a wry sense of humor and talent for capturing moments when she was admitted to the hospital on the afternoon on Aug. 16.

Breathing through an oxygen tank and showing the strain of symptoms on her face, she captured and posted a perfectly composed photo of herself in a hospital bed, with the angle intentionally offset and her blue eyes above her mask drawing the viewer's focus.

"She was basically an artist," Damon said, recalling his wife's many talents. "She went from professional photography to embroidery and the last several years, she had gotten very much into digital art and was fascinated with calligraphy."

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Despite COVID-19 or other complications not impacting Kristy's artistic eye, the picture from the hospital bed would sadly mark the start of a hellish two-week battle for the young mother, her family and the team of doctors and nurses working around the clock to try and save her life.

Hundreds of people would comment on the Facebook posts in the days that followed. Among these was a light-hearted moment for the mother that saw her express pride in posting her son's first day of school photos without missing a year.

"She was having a come apart in the hospital because she said 'this is the one thing I’ve never missed a step on is getting the first day of school picture,'" Damon recalled. "I went in to work, did my morning reports, came flying back, took the cover off my phone and she had already typed out the instructions for the photos."

The attentive husband made sure to get their son in multiple poses, with the lighting Kristy had recommended. Even after following the directions to the letter, Damon had his doubts before he sent them off for his wife's blessing.

"She said 'those are actually really good' and after 11 years of marriage that’s the first time I ever took a photo that I got her seal of approval on," he said.

Joy would soon turn to worry and heartbreak, however, as Kristy's condition worsened in the days that followed.

"Her doctor had removed her from isolation a week before and she struggled," Damon said. "She got close to going on a ventilator a few times and never did ... within 90 seconds, she said she didn’t feel well and then she was gone."

Her death came a little more than a week before DCH Health System in Tuscaloosa reported that more patients in Pruet's age range had been hospitalized during the current surge in cases than at any other point during the pandemic. Officials have been vocal about this departure from past trends during the pandemic, as this age range also lags in terms of its vaccination percentage.

As DCH Chief Operating Officer Paul Betz pointed out, in the past, older patients who died from the virus tended to decline over time after being admitted. But for young patients receiving critical care in the ICU, "their bodies are able to defend themselves against this virus for longer periods of time, but when their bodies give up, they decline very, very rapidly."

Although Pruet's story is no doubt heart-wrenching in its own individual ways, it is far from an atypical example of the human toll being exacted by the pandemic among increasingly younger victims. As Patch reported last week, another 41-year-old Northport resident — ALEA Senior Trooper Jason Vice — lost his life after a protracted hospital battle against the virus.

These two deaths leave behind untold grief felt by innumerable people and yet still only represent a small fraction of the devastation wrought by COVID-19 in Tuscaloosa County. To date, 669 inpatients have died at DCH Regional Medical Center in Tuscaloosa after testing positive for the virus — 46 in the last two weeks, alone.

When asked how he would best like to see his wife remembered, Damon was quick to highlight her generosity. While not originally from Northport, Kristy was engaging with neighbors and quietly forged innumerable bonds in the community, which were then reflected back onto the grieving family in the countless acts of compassion shown since her death.

"I'm the guy who is incredibly socially-awkward and I probably haven’t spoken to half the people in the neighborhood who have showered us with love," Damon said. "The most I’ve ever done for these people, I did it because of Kristy."

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