LAS VEGAS (KLAS) – A Las Vegas father who contracted COVID-19 while on vacation texted his fiancee from the hospital, “I should have gotten the damn vaccine,” she later told Nexstar’s KLAS.

Michael Freedy, 39, a father of five, and his fiancee, Jessica du Preez, traveled with their family to San Diego in mid-July.

When Freedy returned home, he developed a painful skin rash, du Preez said.

“He was getting chills, couldn’t eat, couldn’t get comfortable, couldn’t sleep,” du Preez said.

This is terrible,” Freedy sent du Preez in a text message from the hospital.

Du Preez said Freedy died in the hospital Thursday morning.

Both du Preez and her eldest child got the first dose of the vaccine when Freedy was admitted to the hospital, she said.