Lying on a hospital bed, oxygen rushing toward his lungs, Roger Mitchell reached for his phone and typed out a message.
“I need your prayers this covid is no joke,” he told his friends Sept. 12 on Facebook, the same social media platform where he received so much disinformation about the pandemic.
Mitchell, an unvaccinated TriMet bus driver from Portland, received hundreds of responses wishing him well. But he deteriorated quickly and died four days later at PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center in Washington. He was 51.
Family members say Mitchell’s abrupt death from COVID-19 was preventable and are urging his coworkers at TriMet, the region’s public transportation agency, to protect themselves from the disease by getting vaccinated.
Mitchell was among more than 860,000 Oregon adults not yet inoculated against COVID-19, even as his mother and brother pressed him for months to take the shot. Vaccination rates lag among Black Oregonians, such as Mitchell, with only 56% of adults partially or fully vaccinated compared to nearly 75% of all adults statewide.
“People have a choice: either take the vaccine and be protected or don’t take the vaccine and die,” said Carolyn Jackson, Mitchell’s mother, who is vaccinated.
Although it’s not known how Mitchell became infected, the family questions if he got it from work at TriMet.
Jackson told her son she feared he could contract the virus while shuttling Portland-area residents around town on the bus he drove. Despite a mask mandate on public transportation and all TriMet buses having plexiglass barriers to protect the drivers, she knew his risk of exposure remained.
But Jackson never won that argument with her son.
Mitchell entered the hospital Sept. 12 with low oxygen levels. It was surprising to see how quickly his condition worsened, Jeffrey Mitchell, a physician’s assistant for 22 years, said of his brother.
Mitchell’s scarred lungs struggled to absorb oxygen and his kidneys eventually failed, his brother said.
In a crucial 53-minute span Sept. 16, the family rushed to the hospital after learning doctors had begun life-saving measures after Mitchell’s heart stopped. Once there, they watched as staff continued trying to revive him before Jeffrey Mitchell said to stop.
“He was ice cold,” Jeffrey Mitchell said. “Other people look at the monitors and see hieroglyphics. I knew what it meant.”
Mitchell fell into the high-risk population for contracting severe COVID-19. He had diabetes, high blood pressure and sleep apnea. His mother believes the added pressure on his respiratory system could no longer take it.
Born and raised in Portland, Mitchell was quiet and shy as a child, his mother said. He opened up more after joining the Boy Scouts and playing Little League Baseball, later graduating from Jefferson High School in 1988.
As an adult, Mitchell enjoyed spending his spare time playing poker and dominos with friends, and he had a love for board games. He spent a lot of time cheering on the San Francisco 49ers and the Portland Trail Blazers. Mitchell had a flair for cooking, too, and would “keep the grill going” all summer long, his mother said.
“Whatever he liked to do, he did it,” Jackson said.
Mitchell had a variety of jobs over the years, including working for Cascade General’s shipyard and doing security for concerts. But he loved his latest position at TriMet, where he drove buses since 2020, according to his mother. Mitchell was typically assigned as a substitute driver where needed. He was last at work Aug. 28.
Knowing her son was not interested in getting vaccinated, Mitchell hoped TriMet would mandate vaccinations for employees, thinking that could change his mind.
TriMet has no vaccination mandate but is preparing to comply with President Joe Biden’s requirement that companies with at least 100 employees require vaccinations or testing. TriMet currently does not have a count on how many employees are vaccinated but is offering a paid day off incentive to employees who can provide proof of full vaccination by Oct. 31.
TriMet last week announced Mitchell’s death in an email to staff, noting that the family hoped any unvaccinated workers would seek shots. At least 178 TriMet employees out of a workforce of over 3,200 have tested positive during the pandemic, according to the agency. TriMet is aware of one other death of an employee who tested positive for COVID-19, the agency said.
“Our deepest sympathy goes out to his family, friends and colleagues at Powell garage,” TriMet General Manager Sam Desue Jr. said in the email announcing Mitchell’s death. “News such as this just keeps reminding us of the tragic reality of this pandemic.”
Mitchell’s family blames misinformation on social media as the largest reason he refused to get vaccinated. Mitchell had read posts on Facebook from friends who said they would not get vaccinated and that fed into the idea that it wasn’t safe, and he was better off without it, his mother and brother said.
Vaccine hesitancy or resistance remains a challenge nationally and in Oregon, some five months after all adults became eligible for inoculation. And barriers, such as a lack of transportation or the inability to miss work, remain for some who otherwise might be open to vaccination.
Cameron Whitten, CEO of the racial justice organization Brown Hope, which received $450,000 in state funding to provide financial assistance to Black Oregonians affected by the pandemic, said there is a clear resistance to the vaccine among some and the common refrain is that people “don’t know what’s in it.”
“It is about the fact that people are speaking and looking to people they identify with, on a human level, and that has a real impact on when they might be able to make a big decision,” Whitten said.
The Mitchell family’s social media posts are now flooded with thoughts and memories from friends and family. Jeffrey Mitchell’s initial post announcing his brother’s death has more than 150 comments.
Jackson said she’ll remember her son as a “happy-go-lucky fella” who died with many friends he touched throughout his life. And in his last days, she said, he hoped they would see what COVID had done to him and learn from it.
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Funeral services have been scheduled for Roger Mitchell at 11 a.m. Friday at Zeller Chapel of the Roses, with a viewing from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. All attendees must wear a mask. The burial will follow at Riverview Abbey Mausoleum. The family has established a GoFundMe page to help cover funeral costs.
-- Alexandra Skores
askores@oregonian.com; 503-221-8073; @AlexandraSkores
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