By Paulina Firozi, Antonia Noori Farzan
About 40 students were watching Paola De Simone's virtual lecture about 20th century world history when she stopped interacting with the slides.
When they noticed the professor in distress and struggling to breathe, they asked for her address to call an ambulance, but she didn't respond, Ana Breccia, who was participating in the virtual class at the time, told The Washington Post in a WhatsApp message on Friday.
Breccia, 23, said at one point, De Simone seemed to contact her husband, and students stayed with her on the call until her husband arrived.
The 46-year-old college professor, who taught at the Argentine University of Enterprise in Buenos Aires, died Wednesday, shortly after collapsing during the virtual class, according to Clarín, Argentina's largest newspaper. The professor, whose Twitter account has since been deleted, had posted on Twitter last week that her coronavirus symptoms had persisted for weeks.
Current and former students, as well as one of De Simone's college classmates, told The Washington Post they weren't surprised when they heard De Simone kept teaching after falling ill.
Silvina Sterin Pensel, an Argentine journalist in New York, said about her longtime friend: "This was not a surprise, I totally portray Paola deciding, 'I can totally do this, my students need me.'"
She called De Simone's death a "sad reminder that the virus is real."
Argentina has reported more than 450 000 coronavirus cases and over 9 000 fatalities, according to Johns Hopkins University, and is one of the hardest-hit countries in Latin America. After months of strict limits, the government has started blaming a surge in cases on residents breaching lockdown protocols, according to the Associated Press.
"The virus is still making rounds in Buenos Aires," Sterin Pensel said. "In Argentina, the confinement has been very strict, so people are showing signs of fatigue in complying. But these kinds of reminders, these awful reminders, they shake your core."
In a statement, Argentine University of Enterprise expressed "deep sorrow" about her death. The university described De Simone, who taught for 15 years in the department of government and international affairs as a "passionate and dedicated teacher."
Michelle Denise Bolo said she took De Simone's economics class at Argentina's Universidad de Buenos Aires in 2017.
Bolo said De Simone had her full attention even when she didn't feel completely awake.
"Her classes were at 7 a.m., it was very difficult sometimes, we were sleepy, but it was crazy because everybody listened to her," 21-year-old Bolo said. "By the end of the class, nobody wanted to leave, everybody wanted to keep talking about what she was explaining."
She remembered a time when De Simone apologized profusely after being a little late to class. "She was so upset," Bolo said. "She was 10 minutes late, it wasn't that long, but she apologized so much."
Bolo said after she received a message from a friend on Thursday about the professor's passing, she spent five or six hours messaging friends and former classmates, sharing stories. "It was like we kind of needed that sharing of memories, it was very heartbreaking when we found out," she said.
Sterin Pensel said she knew even when they were classmates more than two decades ago that De Simone would be a great teacher. The pair met at the Universidad del Salvador, where they started in 1992.
"She was always super brainy, brilliant, you could tell already she had a bright future ahead in teaching or in any endeavor she set her mind to," she said. "She was already displaying this critical thinking you find more in a professor than in a student."
She said she thought about the husband and young daughter her friend leaves behind.
De Simone was a "beautiful person inside and out," she said, adding: "You know those type of individuals, those women who just inspire you?"
Bolo said it was "really special" the way De Simone made connections with her students.
"She managed to show herself and talk about her life and her passions and her other jobs. She was very personal but also super professional," she said. "There are teachers that are sometimes unapproachable - she was nothing like that."
Bolo described a photo of De Simone that some students have circulated on Twitter.
She said: "When I think about her, or I read her name, I imagine her like that, sitting on a desk, moving her hands, laughing and making jokes, making you feel comfortable."