Stephen Harmon, Corona man who tweeted about refusing vaccination, dies of COVID-19 – CBS Los Angeles

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LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) — A 34-year-old man who tweeted about refusing to get vaccinated earlier this week died of COVID, recording his hospital trip all the way.

Stephen Harmon’s last tweet was written from his protected Twitter account on Wednesday, just before the intubation.

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“I am choosing to undergo intubation, I have struggled with this thing as hard as I can but unfortunately it has reached the point of critical choice, and as much as I hate having to do this, I would rather have preparedness rather than a forced emergency procedure. I don’t know when I will wake up, please pray.”

Just six weeks ago, he tweeted: “If you’re having problems with email, I feel like answering, son. I have 99 problems, but not one.”

“I can’t even stress how incredibly frustrating this is,” said Dr. Oren Friedman.

Friedman is on the front line, treating COVID patients at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center. He said the hospital has seen a tenfold increase in COVID admissions.

He said: “Practically not everyone who develops a disease that allows him to be hospitalized has been vaccinated.”

On his Instagram account now, Harmon has posted pictures of himself from his hospital bed. He wrote that he had pneumonia and was at risk of developing brain damage due to his low oxygen levels.

“I can tell you that for respiratory therapists, nurses, and doctors who have to go into rooms and take care of patients with this disease at this point — and knowing that it’s preventable if people simply take the vaccine — it feels terrible. [post-traumatic stress disorder] and frustration,” Friedman said.

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Harmon was a graduate of Hillzone College and attended Heilong Church in Los Angeles. In an Instagram post, Hillsong’s founder, Brian Houston, described Harmon as one of the most generous.

In a written statement provided to CBS Los Angeles, Houston said:

“Steven Harmon’s death was a sad day for those who knew him and called him a friend. Any loss of life is a moment to grieve and provide support to those who are suffering, so our heartfelt prayers are with his family and those who loved him. As a church, our focus is on the spiritual well-being of people in each of our communities.” On any medical issue, we strongly encourage those in our church to follow their physicians’ guidance. While many of our staff, leadership, and parishes have already received the COVID-19 vaccine, we recognize that this is a personal decision each individual makes with the advice of medical professionals.”

On Sunday, three days before his death, Harmon tweeted, “If you don’t have faith that God can cure me of my stupid ventilator, get the hell out of my ICU, there’s no place here for fear or unbelief!”

“I had a patient look at me right before we had to put the breathing tube down, and he was so tearful and shook his head and said, ‘Oh my God, I think I did a really terrible job,'” Friedman said.

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In contrast to the start of the pandemic, Friedman said he’s starting to see young and healthy people hospitalized for COVID. He said the only advanced cases he was treating were in those who already had compromised immune systems.

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