PART TWO - PATIENT GOES HOME AFTER FIVE MONTHS OF HELL, TERROR, AND FEAR, BUT MANY PRAYERS

Two Respiratory Therapists Tell Patient They are Praying for Her and to Hold Her Ground and Continue Refusing Doctor to be Vented

One day she came in to help me get into the chair but she didn’t want to wait until I was ready to stand so she pulled and yanked on my arms to get me to stand up so I pushed her away. She yelled out to the CNA, “did you see that, she just punched me.” I wish I had had the strength to punch her; she deserved it. I reported her to the hospital director and requested that she not attend to me anymore.

They also tried to get me to consider the vaccine. They would send in likeable nurses and Physical Therapists who would tell me their wonderful stories about the vaccine and how they are saving lives and how good they feel about themselves. I would politely listen until they had to leave.

Every day he came in and tried to convince me to get vented, eventually he actually said, “well, it looks like your lungs are improving and we are probably not going to vent you” but again that was short lived and, on another day, he said, “you are not getting better, if you don’t go on a ventilator, you’re going to die.” Fear started rushing in but the prayers from so many people had become relentless. I was being supported but not by this doctor nor his staff except for one RN, one CNA and two respiratory therapists. I had a plethora of people from all over the world praying for me and the sweetest RN from Ukraine, a CNA from China and two respiratory therapists from the USA. I was also having my conversations with God.

It took some time but I got my miracle. I started getting better. I really think that doctor just gave up trying to kill me. Prayer has a way of infiltrating even the darkest of hearts. Eventually he took me out of the Intensive Care Unit. Once I was in another room, two of the respiratory therapists came to see me and shut the door behind them. They wanted me to know that they had been praying for me and how happy they were that I was alive. They told me when they found out I had refused the ventilator, they started praying for me to continue to hold my ground and not give in to the doctor and get vented.

They said that they see what is going on but they have no voice, that they had no power. I thanked them for the prayers. I was truly grateful but I did have to tell them that they were wrong in thinking they have no voice. I reminded them of the Nuremberg Code and asked them to look it up and they needed to understand that keeping silent makes them an accomplice.

I stayed until my insurance ran out. They were sending me to a nursing home and I certainly was not ready for that, even respiratory agreed that I needed to stay with them a bit longer but the doctor and insurance company said it was time to go. Now on to another nightmare.

Nursing home - with a different doctor twice a week and NO respiratory therapists, quality of care goes down significantly. RNs are either high or can’t speak English and I’m not kidding. Most of the staff are from Haiti, so hard to understand what they were saying and they got pissed having to repeat themselves. I watched a night RN outside my window getting high in a car with a guy. She was supposed to bring in my night medications at 10:00 pm, but she never brought them even after hitting the call button and asking the CNAs to bring her in three different times.

I finally called the facility and no one would answer the phone. She left her shift never attending to me. I did file a report but nothing came of it. The only good thing I can say about my stay there is after about three weeks, I finally got someone to take me to a shower and get my hair cut. 5 months of hell…5 months of terror…5 months of fear…5 months of never-ending prayer. I believe in MIRACLES!!!

If you would like to support our work on The Remembrance Project, you can either pay for a monthly or annual subscription or buy us a coffee at:  https://www.buymeacoffee.com/AFLN2021.