A Nebraska woman said she’s heartbroken by the response she got from Smithfield Foods after reaching out to share that her grandfather had died from coronavirus and that her aunt and uncle, employees at a plant for the world’s largest pork processor, also became ill.
The last time Vy Mai saw her grandfather, Tam Mai, he was hooked up to a ventilator and she was watching him over FaceTime, she said. He died this week after battling COVID-19 for about a week.
“My grandpa was a very sweet old man,” Vy Mai, 22, told NBC News. “He cared about his family, his family was basically all that he had. He really cared about his grandkids, his siblings, his children. He was overall a very selfless person.”
Tam Mai, 80, lived with relatives who work at the Smithfield Foods facility in Crete, Nebraska, and recently tested positive for the coronavirus, his granddaughter said. She said he rarely left the house but had underlying health conditions, including heart disease.
Vy Mai believes her aunt and uncle were infected at work and spread the virus to her grandfather.
Smithfield Foods has previously closed multiple plants because of coronavirus outbreaks among employees, but the Nebraska plant has not been shuttered. Though there were reports of cases at the Crete plant, the company said it would not confirm COVID-19 cases in its facilities “out of respect for Smithfield employees’ legal privacy.”
Devastated by his death, Vy Mai reached out to Smithfield Foods on Instagram this week to share her family’s story.
Let our news me