Marilyn Arena, whose husband made a viral video about a crowded hospital, has died of breast cancer. She leaves behind her husband and children.
Last summer, Jason Arena went viral on TikTok. The North Carolina man used the social media app to share his frustration about his wife's struggle to get care for her breast cancer. She faced delays because their local hospital was filled with COVID-19 patients.
Arena explained that Marilyn was fighting stage 4 breast cancer, which had spread to her liver. She woke up one night struggling to breathe, and her husband rushed her to the emergency room for treatment. It took almost 13 hours for staff to find her a bed because of overcrowding.
Even after she was admitted, the couple's struggles to get the care she needed didn't end. Arena explained that Marilyn was discharged early because the staff needed to make room for more patients with COVID-19.
At the time Arena shared the video, North Carolina hospitals were facing a surge of patients. There was a sharp increase in COVID-19 cases, leading to overcrowding at hospitals all over the state. Hospital administrators said that 90% of the people admitted with COVID-19 were unvaccinated.
Arena lashed out at unvaccinated people in his video. While he did not argue with their right to choose, he said, "What I am going to argue with you about is running to the hospital once you get the virus. If you don't trust the medical field to prevent you from getting it, why do you trust them to cure you from it?" The video quickly went viral, getting more than 57,000 comments and 489,000 likes.
Marilyn Arena passed away two weeks after the video was posted.
