WIFE ESCORTED INTO HOSPITAL AFTER DELAY BY STAFF OUTSIDE AND NOT TOLD THAT HER HUSBAND HAD ALREADY DIED

Wife is Husband’s Medical Advocate Since His Prior Stroke but Denied that Right by the Hospital

My husband got sick with fever on July 22, 2021.  He went to bed that night and woke up at 3:30 AM with a 104.1-degree temperature and was unable to sit up. I called his primary doctor and she said to go to the Emergency Room (ER). I took him to the ER and he was immediately put in an isolation room. His heart was in a bad rhythm and he was very weak. He was diagnosed with Covid-19 and the ER doctor was going to send him home, but was concerned about his heart. He was then admitted to the hospital, which was supposed to be for observation.

The ER doctor asked my husband what medicine he thought he needed and David said Ivermectin, Z-pak and Hydroxychloroquine. The doctor agreed with him but said he could not prescribe it because he could lose his job. He said that I needed to get in touch with online doctors to get the medication. In the meantime, they would monitor him and get his heart stable. I asked him and several nurses if I could go to my husband’s room and stay with him. I was told that yes, I could. So, I walked up to his room with the nurses when they took him up. I spoke to the charge nurse and he said that he would get me blankets and I could sleep in his room.

An hour went by and they still had not hooked my husband to a heart monitor or given him water or food. A new nurse walked in the room and said he needed to speak to me. He told me if I didn’t leave, he would call Security. I told him to call Security and while you are at it, get the Director of the floor in here. In a few minutes, the Director came in and said she heard that I was refusing to leave and said she was going to call Security. I told her that I would leave when he got water and food. She started hustling around getting water/food etc. and that is when they brought in the bag of Remdesivir. I did not know anything about it at that time and when I asked, they said it was a medicine to treat Covid-19.

Of the three medical staff in the room, NO ONE mentioned side effects or asked for his or my consent. After they hooked the IV up to him and he had a sandwich and water, I was told again that I had to leave. My husband and I begged for me to be allowed to stay. I told them I was his medical advocate since his stroke in 2011 because of slight memory issues. They still said no. I reluctantly left and the Director on the floor escorted me to my car to make sure that I left.

Every day I called and spoke to nurses and doctors.  Consistently, I begged for Ivermectin, Z-pak and Hydroxychloroquine to no avail. I was diagnosed with Covid-19 on July 24, 2021, and was offered monoclonal antibodies at the ER in the same hospital my husband was in. Yet his doctors said NO, it was not protocol for a hospitalized patient when my husband asked. I refused the treatment and said if he couldn’t have it, then I didn’t want it.

David was given five days of Remdesivir by IV. During those five days, he was sitting up at the side of the bed FaceTiming me. I was told that he had oxygen on and off for comfort. He was still running a fever and did for 5+ days. But his lungs were clear with no coughing or congestion. He did not seem sick enough to die. On July 28 he was discharged from the hospital with oxygen. We were told if his oxygen levels dropped below 88% to come back to the hospital.

On the morning of July 30, David was having a hard time breathing. We called his doctor and she said to call an ambulance. So, we did. They took him back to the hospital and he was admitted to another floor where his treatment and care were worse. I brought my concerns to the Patient Advocacy Department. My son, sister and my two nephews were trying to help me make arrangements to transfer him to another hospital. We finally found UC San Diego Medical Center, which was willing to take him but we were told that he was too critical to move. This all took place on the last week of his life.

I was told his x-ray on Monday, August 2, showed his lungs were clear and his oxygen saturation were better. David was still sitting up in his room talking on the phone and not coughing. Nor did he have congestion. He just wanted to see me and come home. My family and I started pushing for the transfer and up until Wednesday, August 4, I was told he was getting a slight bit better. Then suddenly on Thursday, August 5, I got a conference call from two pulmonary specialists who said he had to be moved to the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) because his lungs were so diseased by Covid pneumonia. He was told that if he didn’t consent to the ventilator, he would die.

They took his cell phone from him and said it wasn’t working. I lost all contact with him. He was moved to ICU. On Friday, August 6, I was on a Zoom call with him. He was on a BiPap machine for oxygen. My husband was able to give thumbs up and down when I asked him questions. He even made the “I love you” sign to me. The next day, Saturday, August 7, the Zoom call was entirely different. I saw my husband was restless and squirming and not responding to my questions.

In the early morning hours of Sunday, August 8, I got a call from the doctor on duty in ICU that my husband was not doing well. I was told that he would die if he didn’t go on the ventilator. David had told me that he would go on the ventilator if he could live or it help him breathe. When I asked the doctor if it could help him live and breathe, he said it could help his lungs rest. I consented because I thought he could live.

I asked the doctor if I could finally see my husband. He said yes, I could come to the hospital because my husband may not make it. I was staying with my grandchildren in another city. We got ready to make the drive to the hospital to hopefully see my husband. When we arrived at the hospital, I was very anxious to get to my husband. I was held up at the white tent outside of the hospital and not allowed up right away. I was begging them to let my 26-year-old grandson come in to see his grandpa, but they kept saying no. After quite some time they sent a chaplain down to escort me to the ICU.

That chaplain barely said two words to me as he led me to ICU. When I got to the nurses’ desk in ICU, I looked across the hall and could see my husband was dead laying in the hospital bed. They let me walk up to that with NO preparation or the support of my grandson. The doctor came from behind the desk and said, “I’m so sorry . . . I’m so sorry . . . your husband is gone. He died of cardiac arrest.” The vent was still in so it hadn’t been very long.

Then they FINALLY let me and my grandson go in to see his body after we had to gown up, with a plastic face shield. My husband was denied his right to have his medical advocate. He was denied having his wife and family with him in his final moments. I was denied that right, too. My husband died alone after being isolated and being held captive by a hospital that wouldn’t treat him with the medications he requested. They also kept him against his will when he wanted to go to another hospital. I have trauma and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder from the whole experience.

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