Decatur Man, Father Of 4, Dies From The Coronavirus

DECATUR, GA — A Decatur father of four died over the weekend from the coronavirus. His ex-wife said on Monday that the 48 year old was “otherwise healthy.”

"We are in absolute awe of the outpouring of love for our Matt," AnnaLisa Silliman wrote on a GoFundMe page. "It is and helps ease the pain of losing him to know he mattered to so many."

After experiencing a persistent cough that wouldn’t go away, Matthew Lindsey, 48, drove himself to Emory Hospital on April 4, reports WXIA. The next day Silliman was notified that Lindsey had been moved to the intensive care unit. She said that doctors told her that he was the worst patient there with COVID-19.

He never made it back home.

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Silliman told the news station last week that the hospital had Lindsey on a ventilator.

"He's on a ventilator, he's in a coma, they've put him in a coma and they've purposely paralyzed him so that he won't fight against the machine," Silliman said, adding that he was put on dialysis for his failing kidneys.

A GoFundMe page set to raise $1,200 for a cremation has already reached more than $6,000 as of Monday evening. The family says they will organize a celebration of his life when everyone can come together.

Any additional funds will be donated to two organizations "that meant the world to him and our family."

One is called Moving In The Spirit and the other is a group that provides music instruction and instruments to children who would not be able to afford it.

The Georgia Department of Public Health reported 863 more cases of coronavirus and 31 more deaths in the last 24 hours in numbers released at noon Monday. Confirmed coronavirus cases total 13,315 statewide as of noon Monday, with 2,589 hospitalizations and 464 deaths reported.

Fulton County has recorded the most cases thus far, with 1,598 cases and 52 deaths. Dougherty County in southwest Georgia, where Albany is the site of the state's worst hotspot, is second with 1,217 cases but has recorded 77 deaths, more than any other Georgia county.

The other three counties in the top five are all in metro Atlanta: Dekalb, with 980 cases and 14 deaths; Cobb, with 782 cases and 35 deaths; and Gwinnett, with 739 cases and 22 deaths. Glascock and Taliaferro are the only counties thus far to report no coronavirus cases.

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