A city official in an Arkansas community who once vocally opposed a mask mandate has now changed her mind.
"I knew I was going to die, and I knew I was going to do it alone," said Sandra Brand. Sandra Brand is sharing her fight against COVID from her hospital room. "This is my 15th day."
Brand spent several days in the NEA Baptist ICU alone.
"You didn't have anyone there to hold your hand," she said.
Just two weeks ago she couldn't breathe, had a high fever, chills, and severe body aches. She's documented her fight on social media.
"I'm getting a plasma transfusion of a COVID Survivor. They believe the anti-bodies will make me better."
Brand has now moved onto the hospital's COVID Unit. She says another chance at life didn't look promising until she agreed to allow doctors to use the trial drug Remdesivir with hopes of a quicker recovery.
"I can breathe for the first time in over two weeks," she said.
Now that she can talk again, she's urging people to do the right thing.
"I'm on the city council in Osceola, we were going to be voting on mandatory masks and I was against it. I was like why should they be able to tell me what to do."
Bland considered herself selfish and says now, she has changed her mind about masks.
"If you can stop somebody from coming in this room and feeling the kind of pain and fear that I have felt, why would you want to be that selfish?"