In December 2020, William Donald Judah developed COVID-19. On Jan. 2, 2021, when his symptoms worsened, William drove himself to the hospital. He died on Jan. 8 of renal failure and pneumonia, according to his mother, who said the hospital treated her son with remdesivir.

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In December 2020, life was going well for 40-year-old William Donald Judah. He was vice president of a family-owned janitorial company in Prattville, Alabama, the father of a 5-year-old son, stepfather to two other children and a softball coach.

“All the girls loved him,” his mother, Donna Sue Harvell, told The Defender. “He was affectionately called ‘Coach Will.”

Harvell said she was supposed to see William right after Christmas 2020, but the plans were canceled when he tested positive for COVID-19 and began experiencing symptoms such as a loss of smell and taste.

“I would’ve dropped everything and run up there, but he said, ‘No, there’s nothing you can do,’” Harvell recalled.

In the coming days, William’s symptoms worsened. On Jan. 2, 2021, he called his mother and told her he had to drive himself to Prattville Baptist Hospital. “They’re going to go ahead and keep me,” he said.

“He was going to the hospital to get some antibiotics, and they isolated him,” Harvell said. By Jan. 8, 2021, he was dead — a victim, his mother said, of COVID-19 hospital protocols, which included the administration of remdesivir over five days.

“We miss him every day,” said Harvell, who shared medical documentation with The Defender confirming her son’s story and the medical treatment he received.

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