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A veteran Pennsylvania volunteer firefighter died of COVID-19 only two weeks after contracting the virus.
Oakmont Assistant Fire Chief Nick Sava, 65, been hospitalized from the coronavirus before succumbing to the illness, the department announced Monday. If he had survived, he would have been among the first individuals to receive the vaccine, WPVI-TV reports.
"His wife, Karen, ended up taking him to the hospital," Janice Dea, a longtime friend, told the TV outlet. "As soon as he got there, they intubated him, so he was in bad shape from the beginning, and then he ended up on kidney dialysis,"
Sava had been a volunteer firefighter with the Oakmont Fire Company in Havertown for nearly 50 years. He held multiple leadership roles during that time, including deputy fire chief.
"Everybody in Havertown knows Nick," Dea told WPVI. "He just was that kind of person. He was well-loved, had a great sense of humor."
