COVID-19 Humanity Betrayal ㅤ Memory Project

There is some overlap in stories between the one I sent for my father James and the below.  I could not bring myself to rewrite everything again and this is from early on after they passed.  I would be able to clear up any details in discussion with you:

On New Year’s Eve 2021, I escorted my parents to Newnan Hospital ER due after my father had diarrhea again, and developed blood in his urine.  After waiting in a crowded waiting room for over an hour, I left my parents there to return home.  My mother phoned the next morning to tell me they were in the ER still waiting for a bed to come available for my dad.  During this call, I reminded her to tell ER staff not to administer Remdesivir to my father.  She told ER staff this while I was still on the phone with her.

She had been sitting in a chair all night with him waiting.  After approximately 18 hours, my father was admitted to the hospital for COVID.  After admittance to the hospital, she was forced to leave him regardless of his dementia.  I picked her up at approximately 10 pm the following night and brought her home, also sick.  I then called the next morning (1/2) to request that the charge nurse allow her to return at her insistence because of my father’s mental status.

The nurse agreed because my father was non-compliant with keeping his IV in and was trying to “escape” his bed and seemed completely confused.  He also would not swallow anything.  My mother wasn’t feeling well herself, so I told her to rest for awhile before going back.  She laid down but the phone rang around 2 p.m.  The nurse assigned to him wanted to know when my mother would be there because they couldn’t handle him and all the other patients they had to attend to.

They said if she didn’t come, they would need to restrain him to keep him in bed.  My mother immediately got dressed and I took her to the hospital shortly thereafter.  She was required to wear a gown and mask (N95) and sleep on a chair.  She was not allowed at first to get food from the hospital, so I returned with food which I had to deliver to the front desk because I was not permitted to go to his room at all. Every time I talked to her on the phone, I reminded her to tell them no Remdesivir, fearing they would give it anyway, as I had read about this happening in other hospitals.

There was a no visitation policy in place at that time.  This went on for approximately 4 days with me delivering fresh clothes, blanket (hospital would not provide one), medication, etc. to the front desk.  All the while, my mother, unbeknownst to me was getting sicker.  She texted me when she needed me to bring something or to update me on my dad’s status.  On 1/5, she called to tell me she was too sick to walk to the ER and asked me to call a nurse to push her down and get her help.

I called the charge nurse on my dad’s floor and demanded they take her via wheelchair to the ER.  I met her at the ER and she could hardly stand or walk.  As we waited to be seen, she could not hold her head up and used me to lean on.  We waited in excess of 6 hours and finally they released her with the condition she follow up with a doctor in 2 days.  She was COVID positive and only given an albuterol inhaler which she could not hold in due to her severe cough, and a Z-pack.  Two days later, I called a mobile medic (Go Med) to come see her, as I could not get her to an urgent care or doctor, nor could I get her an appointment since she had no established doctor here and was COVID positive.

Urgent cares were still very full and impossible to get into.  The mobile medic demanded she be taken by ambulance to the hospital for her low oxygen (84%, I believe).  I complied and she left on 1/7 to go back to Newnan Hospital ER.  She stayed there approximately 24 hours until they had a bed for her to be admitted.  Again, I was not allowed to visit her due to visitation restriction at that time.

When she called by cell while in the ER, I told her to be sure and tell the nurses she did not want Remdesivir.  She did so while was was on the phone with her.  I heard the nurse acknowledge her request.  After she was admitted, I received a call about her condition where they explained her oxygen levels were worsening and she would need a Cpap type machine to breathe.  At this time, I again asked that no Remdesivir be administered and asked about ivermectin.

I was told they would not permit ivermectin and that it was not approved for COVID.  At no time was I told that Remdesivir had already been administered and I was under the impression based on my conversation with nursing staff that my request would be adhered to.  This turned out not to be the case, as I later saw in her chart that she had received Remdesivir (at least two times) anyway, right after admission on 1/7.  I then checked on my father’s chart and saw that he too had been given doses of Remdesivir (for sure on 1/9 and 1/10, possibly 4 doses ).

I received calls daily about my father’s condition and was told he had severe urinary infection, mental cognition problems and required restraints to keep his IVs in.  His condition continued to decline each day and I spoke to person named James Dinwiddie extensively about his decline on approximately 1/14.  Dinwiddie stated that his nutrition was such that he could not recover, so they would need to either put him in hospice and let him die, keep doing what they were doing which he admitted was not working, or intubate him and put a feeding tube in so he could get better nutrition to possibly give him the strength to recover.

I was also told by a nurse, Betsy, who allowed me to Facetime my father (since I wasn’t allowed to visit) that he was in rapid decline and she did not expect him to survive much longer.  She stated he was bruised from pulling at restraints and moaning, unable to communicate with anyone.  This influenced my decision to let them intubate him, hoping that they feeding tube would do enough for his strength to quickly allow him to come off the ventilator, as his oxygen was still in the 90s.  Approximately two days later, on 1/17 at 10 am, I was called when he crashed and the critical care team was there to administer CPR.  I had to make a split-second decision to give them DNR permission.

My mother was intubated by this time as well (1/10), so she could not make any decisions on behalf of my dad at that point.  He died of cardiac arrest at that hour.  Only then was I allowed to come to the hospital to view his body.  I was not allowed to go in and see my mother either although she was just across the hall.  I was only able to peer through the glass door on my way out.

My mother’s oxygen levels had continued a downward trend and on 1/10, the nurse called and said the CPAP machine was not supplying sufficient levels of oxygen and that she needed to be intubated.  I asked to speak to my mother who could barely talk to me due to the mask she was wearing.  I asked what she wanted to do and she stated, “I have to for your dad.”  I asked her if she was sure and the nurse said she nodded (I couldn’t see or hear her).  That was the last time I heard her voice.  I received daily calls on her blood gas levels, d-dimer levels, etc. and all indications were good initially.

It seemed her levels were improving, and she was recovering somewhat.  I was not allowed to visit still and my mother had no idea about my father’s worsening condition, or so I thought.  However, on 1/17 after my father passed, my mother’s oxygen levels dropped significantly, and I was called by the duty nurse.  This continued the following day and night with her having to be supplemented 100% within about a 48 hour period following his death.  I knew at this point she was able to hear the nurses talking about my dad’s passing.  I began calling hospital staff, begging the charge nurse to let me come see her (Dawn). I was promised by Dawn that she would ask her boss if I could come up the following day, but I got no answer.

Mom’s condition kept worsening, so I finally spoke to the boss myself, Emily.  I was allowed to come briefly to see my mom on 1/20 strictly because my dad had already died there, and my mother was in grave condition.  Her condition remained poor, and on 1/22 (approximately) I was called by Dr. Statton, a surgeon, who told me my mom needed emergency bowel surgery.  Her bowel had collapsed and was in danger of perforating, so I had to give permission for them to operate.  I did so and later found out that she had not had a bowel movement since her date of admission on 1/7.

I expressed concern about this fact and asked how they had not ensured she had a bowel movement.  The surgeon admitted on more than one occasion that the lack of a bowel movement certainly could have caused the collapse.  The bowel surgery was “successful” from the vantage point of stopping a perforation, but remained guarded, because they weren’t sure if the intestine would repair itself fully.  She was then removed from her feeding tube and all stool softeners and laxatives, enemas, etc. to give the bowel rest and time to heal.

This continued until it was noted that she had fluid build-up on her abdomen and required two drains.  The drains pulled off 3 liters of fluid immediately and continued to collect more fluid for the remainder of her time in the hospital.  She did not have a bowel movement for 40 days.

Shortly thereafter, however, I came into her room (on 1/24 the visitation policy was changed, and I was able to come see her thereafter on a regular basis) and a traveling nurse by the name of Vanessa said she had given her Senikot, a laxative.  I immediately expressed concern that this was not to be administered per her surgeon’s orders and was told that they were comfortable that she needed to be given the stool softener at this point.

I later questioned Dr. Statton and found this order was not given.  Mom had a total bowel leak causing irreparable sepsis a few days later which they denied was related to this Senikot.  I was also lied to on at least 3 occasions about her thyroid meds which she needed daily to function normally.  I was told she was being given her normal dosages but later found out they stopped her meds when she was intubated.

I raised concerns that this could be impacting her poor kidney function and her edema issues and they agreed to put her on IV drip of thyroid meds.  They were very interested throughout the ordeal in removing mom from the ventilator and this became outright pressure when we hit day 28 in hospital.  I believe this is because the hospital would begin losing money after 30 days of admission.