Sept. 7, 2021 — TikTok creator and artist Alexandra Blankenbiller posted her final video on Aug. 15 from her health center bed. Order raspy, respiratory with the wait on of a machine, she pleaded along with her followers to catch vaccinated in opposition to COVID-19.
“I don’t maintain different vitality for speaking, so I’m going to study out to attain this quick,” acknowledged Blankenbiller, who lived within the Jacksonville, FL, site. “I did no longer catch vaccinated. I’m no longer anti-vax; I used to be moral trying to full my study. I used to be stupefied.”
“I cease reflect it used to be a mistake,” she persevered. “I shouldn’t maintain waited. When you might maybe be even 70% definite you wish the vaccine, toddle catch it. Don’t wait. Dash catch it. Because with any luck even as you catch it, then you definately received’t cease up within the health center admire me.”
9 days later, she died. She used to be 31.
Esteem many Americans, Blankenbiller had been hesitant to catch the vaccine. She had study conflicting data about the on hand COVID-19 shots, and she and her family didn’t are looking out to catch immunized till all individuals used to be on board.
“It’s no secret that is one thing that needs to be taken severely,” says her sister, Cristina Blankenbiller. “But there might be so valuable misinformation within the market.”
Once they all agreed to catch their shots, Blankenbiller, along along with her mother and two sisters, made their appointments. But they fell unwell before their scheduled time slots.
Blankenbiller got the worst of it. Her blood oxygen level persevered to plummet till she went to Orange County Clinical Heart, the place doctors, nurses, and her 15,000 TikTok followers maintain been her handiest firm. Her family wasn’t allowed to consult with with till they got a name that nothing extra that will maybe be completed for her.
“Her ultimate video in actual fact confirmed different who she used to be,” says her loads of sister, Rachel Blankenbiller “She used to be selfless — the originate of one who oldschool her ultimate days to wait on others.”
Her final four videos maintain been taken within the health center. In a chilling video from Aug. 13, there maintain been screams coming from one other room. Blankenbiller looked stupefied.
Sadly, her case is no longer outlandish. According to CDC data, Florida is seeing its deadliest surge of COVID-19 for the explanation that origin of the pandemic. Most productive 54% of the recount inhabitants used to be fully vaccinated as of Sept. 3.
Family and mates be conscious Blankenbiller for her kindness; she used to be the originate of one who would cease a stranger at the grocery store to pay a compliment, Rachel says.
“She came across beauty in every part and everyone,” she says. “She loved folks without judgment. No topic whether or no longer you wished her savor or no longer, you would catch it.”
Royce Freeman, 41, met Blankenbiller at a native filmmaker meetup in 2016. Blankenbiller began visiting him on movie sets when he worked and would supply wait on without inquiring for credit. When she died, she and Freeman maintain been engaged on a screenplay together. She apologized that her illness would intervene along with her work and had planned to write from her health center bed till the an infection became too severe.
“The day before she went to the health center, she used to be sending me pages,” Freeman says. “She didn’t feel moral, but she used to be pushing thru.”
Blankenbiller is furthermore mourned by the Jax Treblemakers, a native a cappella community, which regarded as her a member of their family. She auditioned for them in 2016, and stood out for her positivity and humor moral away, says Alec Hadden, the community’s govt and ingenious director.
“She cared deeply about helping others, and I reflect it used to be that compassion for others that drove her to study out and educate folks thru her ultimate few videos,” Hadden says. “She did no longer desire somebody, even a stranger staring at her videos on TikTok, to buckle down and do the anxiousness and heartache that she and others on the COVID ward maintain been going thru. And if she might maybe wait on even one person, she would.”
