Papillion family remembers family member lost to COVID-19

OMAHA, Neb. (WOWT) - “This might just be a statistic to a lot of people but for us, this is our husband and our dad,” Wife of Neville Pillay, Kara said.

The Pillay’s lost their father and husband a week ago. A man they remember as welcoming and having a knack for putting smiles on people’s faces.

“My dad was a loving and caring daddy and I loved him so much,” eight-year-old Brendan Pillay said.

Neville became sick around the same time as his wife Kara on November 29th. On December 8th he was in the hospital, on the 17th he and his wife made the decision to intubate him.

It looked like the right decision a few days later but the Medication he was on caused organ failure and he died on the 29th.

“There’s a lot of people hurting right now,” Kara said.

Kara, a nurse, knew what a frightening journey her family was on.

“Most of it I also understood and knew which I guess is an advantage but also a disadvantage because you realize how scary the whole situation was and how sick he really was,” Kara recalled.

Her three children remember Neville as the dad who rocked out to karaoke, liked to buy cars and was adamant about taking his family on cross-country trips.

Kara and her children are now leaning on each other to fill the hole in their lives.

The Pillay’s share their loss with us in hopes they can save someone else.

“I pray that you guys wear a mask keep the distance if you can just practice all the stuff that science has proven for so many years and even if we get one family to decide to wear masks we can slow the spread that’s what we hope we hope we can save somebody else’s life so they don’t have to go through this,” Kara said.

You can help support the family by donating or sending a venmo @Kara-Pillay .

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