One of founders of the 'Freedom Defenders' - a local Texas group fighting against COVID-19 restrictions, mask mandates and vaccines - died of COVID-19 on Saturday.
Caleb Wallace, 30, leaves behind his pregnant wife, Jessica, and three young children.
Jessica posted on the GoFundMe page, 'Caleb has peacefully passed on. He will forever live in our hearts and minds.'
For almost a month, Caleb was unconscious, ventilated and heavily sedated in the ICU at Shannon Medical Center in San Angelo, Texas.
Caleb developed symptoms in late July but was very resistant to turn to professional medical help, Jessica said in a previous interview with the San Angelo Standard-Times.
'But every time he would start to cough, it would turn into a coughing attack, and then that would cause him to completely go out of breath.
'He was so hard-headed. He didn't want to see a doctor, because he didn't want to be part of the statistics with COVID tests.'
Caleb Wallace, 30, (left and right with his wife ) is one of the founders of the 'Freedom Defenders' a local San Angelo group fighting against COVID-19 restrictions, mask mandates, and vaccines
By Saturday, August 21, Caleb will have spent more than 12 days on a ventilator
Instead, Caleb opted to treat himself with a cocktail of Vitamin C, zinc, aspirin and ivermectin, an anti-parasitic drug that has been falsely touted by some as an effective COVID-19 treatment.
This month the FDA issued a warning for Americans to stop taking the anti-parasitic drug intended for livestock as a treatment.
The FDA tweeted, 'You are not a horse. You are not a cow. Seriously, y'all. Stop it.'
Caleb's outlook looked bleak by the middle the week.
Jessica posted an update on Wednesday to her Facebook page saying, 'He's not doing good.
'It's not looking in our favor, his lungs are stiff due to the fibrosis. They called and said they've run out of options for him and asked if I would consent to a do not resuscitate. And it would be up to us when to stop treatments.
'My heart just can't. I can't imagine my life without him. I'm sorry if I don't respond to any calls or texts or messages, I am just broken up.'
The Wallace family has called Caleb on FaceTime every night for the past three weeks. Caleb is unable to respond as he has been unconscious for over two weeks now
On Wednesday, his wife Jessica Wallace posted a 'heartbreaking update' of his condition to Facebook writing that doctors have 'run out of options for him and asked if I would consent to a do not resuscitate'
In the GoFundMe post, Jessica - who's expecting their fourth child on September 27 - said she needs help paying the 'mortgage, water, electricity and necessities for the girls.'
'Anything helps at the moment. I'm trying to prepare for this month and the next,' she said.
'With being this far along in pregnancy I can't get a job and after delivery I'll need a few weeks to recover.'
The family has called Caleb on FaceTime every night for the past three weeks, but this week Caleb was unable to respond to his young girls.
The girls tell Caleb how their day went, how much they love and miss him, and how badly they want him home.
'Keep fighting, daddy,' the girls told their sick father on Thursday during the video chat, according to the Standard-Times. 'We miss you.'
The family is expecting their fourth child, Emsley Jean Wallace, on September 27. Jessica has created a GoFundMe page to raise money for household ad medical bills which she as an expecting stay-at-home can not cover
In a promotional video for the group posted to crooksandliars.com in October, Caleb explains what the 'Freedom Defenders' are standing for.
'We're fighting to get people to work. We're fighting for people to get on their feet. We're fighting for people to start talking with their neighbors and to have conversations instead of shutting down or looking at their phones all day. Let's start opening up with each other.'
'If we don't start doing something now. We're gonna lose much more than we bargained for,' he said in the video.
Just a few weeks before being hospitalized, Caleb helped organize 'The Freedom Rally', which was advertised as a protest against 'government being in control of our lives.'
The Texas father was one of the founders of the local San Angelo, Texas group fighting against 'COVID-19 tyranny.'
The group actively resisted COVID-19 restrictions for an 'open Texas' and opposed masks and vaccines.
As one of the founding leaders, alongside Coco Simpson, he gave interviews questioning public health measures and scientific findings and organized rallies and protests.
In an open letter written to San Angelo Independent School District on April 10, Wallace condemned lockdowns and mask mandates.
He falsely claimed there is 'little evidence that masks worked for anyone.'
'What have been the benefits of lockdowns and masking? I say to you that there is ZERO benefit to this continued practice.'
He ended the letter demanding that the school district 'rescind ALL COVID-related policies immediately!'
Texas joined a growing list of states that are seeing record numbers of hospitalized COVID-19 patients in a surge that is overwhelming doctors and nurses and afflicting more children.
Intensive care units around the nation are packed with patients extremely ill with COVID-19 like Caleb.
The same day Jessica posted the Facebook update on Caleb's condition, Texas reported more COVID-19 patients in their hospitals than at any other time since the pandemic began, 14,255 and 2,074, respectively, according to US Department of Health and Human Services data.
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