A woman in North Carolina had a heart attack but couldn’t get the medical help she needed because of Hurricane Helene’s downed power lines and damaged roads. Her family is heartbroken.
Renato Rotolo, Shirley’s husband, woke up at 2 a.m. in his dark, useless home to find his wife having what he thought was a nightmare. It had been a week since they had survived the Category 4 storm. He knew right away that she was having a heart attack.
WRAL says Rotolo then tried to call 911 but couldn’t because his cell phone service was down. When he went back to his wife, she was already gone.
Then Rotolo drove to a nearby hospital, dodging blocked roads and downed trees, but it was too late.
“They tried to save her, but there was nothing they could do, unfortunately,” Rotolo said.
He thinks that the storm and its heavy damage caused his wife’s fatal medical emergency.
His words, “It all really got to her,” were shared.
He said that he and his family will never be the same, but they will always remember how much they loved their mother, teacher, writer, and artist wife.
“An angel,” he called his wife. “I don’t think they make them like that anymore.”
Over 200 people have died and thousands of people are still without power more than a week after Hurricane Helene hit the Southeast of the US.