PATIENT’S HOSPITAL RECORDS CLEARLY STATE THAT HE IS NOT A CANDIDATE FOR REMDESIVIR YET HE IS STILL GIVEN THE MEDICATION
Wife Forced to Leave Husband at Hospital and When Permitted to Return, Finds Him Bloated With 60-70 pounds of Extra Fluid
My husband, Luis, was blind. He tested positive for Covid on November 28, 2021. On December 2, he went to the Emergency Room (ER) at Parkview Medical Center, Pueblo, Colorado. They tried to send him home without treatment but the ER nurse did standing/walking oxygen tests and his oxygen dropped to low 80s. He was given Dexamethasone and oxygen. He was prescribed an oxygen concentrator and was put on 2 liters. On December 5, his at-home oxygen levels dropped to 86-88% on 5 liters so we went back to the ER.
When he walked in the door of the ER, his oxygen saturation (O2) levels had dropped to 72% and he was admitted. Even though he was 100% blind, our 21-year-old son was not allowed to stay with him to help him with monitors or medications. I was Covid positive and not allowed in with him. Upon admittance, his hospital records stated that his kidney levels were elevated (Stage 3 kidney disease). We had never been told this by any of his doctors and he went regularly (every 3 months). His heart enzyme levels were also elevated. He asked for monoclonal antibodies and the doctor told him he could not have them until his kidney numbers leveled out. He asked several times if he could have someone come sit with him and was denied each time.
His hospital records stated clearly that he was not a candidate for Remdesivir and yet they started him on that very drug on December 6. On December 9, he contacted me (conversation was very difficult for him because he had to dictate to his phone to send messages to me and it took too much out of him). He told me that he fell asleep as his O2 levels dropped into the 60s on high-flow nasal cannulas and no one caught it. He had to be moved to the APAP mask that night. I called the nurse and asked her how his levels were not caught; she denied that they were ever that low and yet it says it right on his hospital records. I was finally able to reach a patient advocate and raised hell and was able to go in with my husband on December 10. When I arrived, he was in the CPAP mask and his O2 levels were at 89% on 100% oxygen.
I sang to him and rubbed his back and calmed him and his levels went back up to the low to mid-90s. He had a nebulizer treatment at 2:00 AM that brought his O2 up to 96%. I stayed awake with him all night. On the morning of December 11, he was able to handle the nose cannulas again and eat real fast, but had to go right back to the mask. His levels were hovering between 87 and 92% so the Medical Intensive Care Unit (ICU) doctor said he wanted him transferred to their floor. Once he got to the ICU, we waited for five hours for a doctor to even come in his room even though his nurse went out looking for him on four separate occasions. When he came in my husband’s room, his O2 levels were in the mid-90s even after having the nasal cannula on for dinner. My husband was talking and joking around and seemed to be so much better. In fact, the doctor said he would be moved back to 5 Tower in a couple of days at this rate. That was not the case.
I finally needed to sleep. My husband’s O2 levels were in the 90s so I took a quick rest. All of a sudden, his alarms were blaring after a nebulizer treatment. I woke up and the nurse came in and said his O2 levels were dropping to around 85%. He kept telling me to try to calm him down and have him breathe. He kept bouncing between 85-87%. The pulmonologist came in and told us his heart was working overtime, his levels were continuing to drop and we needed to consider venting him before it was too late. My husband and I were both so scared and we had no idea what good levels and bad levels were. We were both sleep deprived and my husband made the choice to be vented because he was scared to wait until it was too late. We were allowed to call our children but 10 minutes later, I was whisked out of the room without getting to say goodbye.
I was allowed in to see him once after he was sedated and paralyzed. I got 30 minutes with him and I was kicked out of the hospital. I called and called to try to get back into the hospital in the next several days. I was already with him and I didn’t understand why I couldn’t continue to sit with him. Each time I called I was met with a no. He was vented on December 12 and I did not get a call back from a doctor for five days. I would get nurses’ progress reports and only if I called for them. No one ever called me. On December 18 my husband went into septic shock. His blood pressure bottomed out and he was put on vasopressors. They finally put a peripherally inserted central catheter line in instead of doing that when they should have earlier. He battled back into critical stable but on the 22nd, his O2 levels dropped to the low 70s. The pulmonary doctor called and said he was tachycardic. He said that we could either let him continue and he could go into cardiac arrest or we could move him to comfort care and be by his side when he went.
My children and I struggled with this decision. We decided to go and be with him. When I got to the hospital, I was shocked. When I had left him, he was thin and experiencing some atrophy. When I got there, he was bloated and probably had 60-70 pounds of fluid on him. How he didn’t qualify for dialysis I will never know. He died in the early morning hours of December 22 at the age of 46. He left behind three children aged 25, 23, and 21 and two granddaughters age 6 and the one he didn’t get to meet who was born December 6 while he was being admitted to the hospital.
He had Type II diabetes that was very well controlled and was on high blood pressure medications as well as a statin. There was a charge nurse on 5 Tower that berated him in front of me and didn’t listen when was he was trying to tell her that his mask wasn’t on right. There were other things that we have documented written by hand that I can submit when and if needed.
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.