TAMPA, Fla — At just 29 years old Tallie Tidwell's husband fought to beat a rare form of cancer.
"I will never forget the day he was diagnosed with cancer. I used to say that was the worst day of my life," Tidwell said when 10 Tampa Bay reporter Angelina Salcedo first spoke to her on August 10.
Ryan fought hard and was in remission a few months later. Tidwell says they both got vaccinated against COVID-19 to prevent him from getting sick. Once cases started to surge due to the delta variant, the former marine caught the virus.
"Him being intubated was probably the worst day of my life," Tidwell said.
Doctors say Ryan never created antibodies because of his chemo treatments and weakened immune system. He was at Moffitt Cancer Center getting better, but lost his COVID battle on August 17. His death happened right as Florida's COVID-19 death numbers started rising.
"On August 20, 330 people who were Florida residents died from COVID-19 on that day," Dr. Jason Salemi with USF Public Health said.
That was a pandemic high according to the doctor who has been closely following the state's numbers. He says the number of people dying will keep going up.
"Deaths are probably going to continue to rise maybe to 350 deaths per day. I would say it's safe to say it's probably going to rise for another week or two before we start to see the decline. That's a result of the decline in cases and hospitalizations that we're seeing right now," Salemi said.
Salemi adds this loss of life was preventable. More people needed to be vaccinated.
"It just underscores the importance of people going out there and getting vaccinated protecting themselves and their families," he said.
Tallie did just that and hopes others will do the same.
"Do it for Ryan because if we were not at that point with the delta variant, this wouldn't be happening. He's my soulmate and he will always be," Tidwell said.
The Tidwell family held a funeral service for Ryan on August 27 in Sarasota. Everyone who attended was fully vaccinated or received a negative COVID test to attend. They encourage others to get the vaccine and protect one another.