We were both diagnosed with Covid on 8/18/21. I only had a mild sinus infection and slight cough. He had a horrible cough and sinus infection.
We saw our regular doctor on 8/18/21, and were given antibiotics, steroids, inhalers. He was getting worse and went to the doctor’s office on Friday, 8/20/21. He saw a PA who got a chest x-ray, and said his lungs were slightly congested, so he wrote him an RX for a nebulizer and nebulizer medication, and a referral for monoclonal antibodies to get on Monday. (Found out in November 2021 that he should have been given the monoclonal antibodies at our doctor’s office on Saturday, the next day after his appointment – the same day he was admitted to ER that evening).
We had a late Friday appointment (3:45 PM). We went to the pharmacy after we left doctor’s office, but by then it was after 5 pm. The pharmacist told us the PA wrote the directions wrong, and they were waiting for him to call the pharmacy to correct the directions.
We went home waiting for the pharmacy to call but they never did. Called pharmacy in morning (Saturday) and the pharmacist said they did not hear from them. I told them they have Saturday morning hours, so try that office. We were also trying that office, and every time we called, they pushed us to go to the patient portal.
We kept asking to talk to the on call doctor, but they just kept pushing patient portal. We never got the nebulizer medication! The pharmacy fiasco was on Friday night and Saturday morning.
By Saturday evening, my husband said he needed to go to the hospital. I hurried and got him up to the ER and since I had covid, I was not allowed in (they were not letting anyone in with their loved one). I went home and was told to call them in 2-3 hours, which I did, and they said he was doing good that they were pumping him full of antibiotics.
They moved him to a room, and I was able to call him on Sunday. When I called him, I did not get an answer. When I finally got a hold of him, I asked him, “Why he didn’t pick up the first time?” and he said the phone was too far away from him (I thought that was odd).
We talked just a little bit because he was so short of breath. I talked to him on Sunday night, and that was the last time we spoke. By Monday morning he was moved to ICU, and was put on a vent. (They never called me to let me talk to him before putting him on the vent!)
Monday afternoon, I got a call from a doctor who said he was very bad and he was on a vent. I asked him did he agree to be put on a vent? And he said, “Yes.” We had never talked about that before, so I had to take their word for it. I did ask one of his nurses and he said that my husband said, “Do whatever you need to do,” meaning he wanted to live. (That’s how I took it.)
From there on, it was a roller coaster ride! One day, good news; next day, bad news. Went on like that for 4 weeks. He had also had SVT which he was treating at home with meds.
I got a call about 3 weeks after he was put on the vent, and was told he had coded 5 times, and if I wanted to make him a DNR (which I did at that moment). I felt he was being put through a lot, but I still had hope for a miracle.
I received a call from palliative care doctor on 9/13/21, and she asked if I had been up to see my husband. I told her I had been asking the nurses, but they always told me they had to check with the charge nurse and they would get back to me. They never did. She said for me to come up to the hospital, and we can have a talk and then I could go into see my husband.
My son and I went up and had a conversation with the palliative care doctor. I expressed my disgust with how all these doctors took a Hippocratic oath, and were not treating these patients like they all know what they should be doing because of how the CDC set the protocols.
We went into my husband’s ICU room and stayed with him for over 2 hours. When we came out to take off all the PPE, I mentioned to one of his doctors that I’m sorry, but I cannot take him off the vent because I am not God, and if God wants him, he will take him, but I was hoping for a miracle. He told me that was fine. I also told him I thought the treatment was all politically motivated, and that I knew his hands were tied. He just looked at me and didn’t say anything.
The nurse who was my husband’s nurse heard what I told his doctor, and while we were taking off the PPE, his Pulmonologist was talking with the nurse. I overheard her say “that’s the family.” He came over to me and my son and started laying into us saying, “Your loved one is not leaving this hospital, so you need to make a decision.” He said, “Do you want his lungs to burst? That’s painful. My aunt did that to my uncle because she couldn’t let go, and his lungs burst. So, you need to make a decision. None of these patients up here are going to leave this hospital, and I’ve got 25 more downstairs that were just put on vents, and they are not leaving either, so you need to decide.”
I proceeded to tell him, “I am not God, and as long as he is still with us, I cannot make that decision.” So he walked away. I had never been talked to like that from a doctor before. He was so angry with us. I did call hospital administrator, and she was going to follow-up with him and get back to me, which she did and told me that he was not going to be the “lead doctor” for my husband. I had told her I do not want him near my husband!
The next day, I got a call at 7:25 AM, to tell me that my husband had a collapsed lung, and do I want them to put in a chest tube. I told them, no, that I didn’t want to put him through that. (I talked with a family friend who is a doctor, and he told me that it wouldn’t be a good idea to do that because my husband by now, would probably need a double lung transplant, if he survived.) I knew my husband wouldn’t want to live like that, so he was put on palliative care, and my son and I went up to the hospital and stayed with my husband till he passed away.
I really believe that if that PA would have ordered the monoclonal antibodies for Saturday morning (he saw him on Friday at 3:45 PM), and we had the nebulizer medicine on Friday night, he would not have been in that hospital ER on Saturday night!!
I had an appointment with my doctor at the same practice in November, 2021, and I told her about the PA and all I got from her was, “I’m always having to talk with those PAs!” Then when I mentioned the monoclonal antibodies she said, “Why didn’t the PA write the order for Saturday morning? We were giving them over the weekend?” She proceeded to tell me about how her husband was the same way, and once he got the monoclonal antibodies he was much better! So I’m beginning to think maybe because my husband wasn’t vaccinated is why he was not given the antibodies earlier than Monday.
When I saw the doctor who diagnosed us, (not the same doctor I saw in November) and told her what happened, (after she asked how my husband was doing) she said they dropped the ball!!!! Ya think!!
I did get a letter from the hospital administrator stating that the pulmonologist that was so angry with us was going to go before a peer review. Seriously, a peer review. What a joke!
It has been 18 months and we miss him so much. He did everything for us. I have had to learn to do a lot of things I have never done before. I just want to see justice for everyone who was denied medication that would have prevented all of this. So disgusted with Big Pharma and CDC and how they were all in control of this. How can anyone ever trust doctors again? I know I can’t.