A college professor in Argentina who had been suffering from persistent coronavirus symptoms collapsed and died at her home during a lecture in front of her virtual class, according to reports.
Paola De Simone, 46, who taught 20th-century world history at Universidad Argentina de la Empresa in Buenos Aries, complained she was having trouble breathing during the Zoom session last week, the Sun reported, citing Diari Mes.
Her alarmed students asked her to give them her home address so they could summon help, but she gasped “I can’t” before collapsing, according to the news outlet.
De Simone’s husband, a doctor, discovered her lifeless body when he came home.
The professor, who also is survived by a daughter, had mentioned her health struggle — and her husband’s work amid the pandemic — on Twitter.
“It is very complicated. I have been here [with the virus] for more than four weeks and the symptoms do not go away,” De Simone wrote, according to the Sun. “My husband is exhausted from working so much at the moment.”
One of her students, Ana Breccia, 23, described the professor’s last moments.
“She began by saying that she had pneumonia, we saw it was worse than in previous classes,” she said. “At one point she could not continue passing slides, nor speak and she became unbalanced.”
Another student called De Simone an “unforgettable teacher, one of those who give you a hand in everything, who make you love what you study, who go out of their way for their students. We are going to miss you a lot,” the Sun reported. (NYPost)