On February 10, 2022, my husband went to shower while I was in bed with a kidney stone. He was going to take me to the doctor. I heard all this commotion and found him having a grand mal seizure in the shower. I know this because I have been a nurse of 40 years. This was new to him. I called the ambulance. They took him to the local hospital I worked at for 40 years. By the time I arrived, they had done a cat scan of his head, and the doctor said it was ok. I told him I wanted him admitted because he is 74 years old, and this was a new incident. He said he had no rooms, and we must leave.
I followed up with a neurologist. I told him that may take weeks. He made us leave; no script for seizures. Less than 24 hours later, he has another one. I called an ambulance and before I arrived, they were doing a covid test. Question that begs is why didn’t they do that one the first trip. When I was told this my heart rate shot up to 200 because I have SVT, caused by stress. They admitted me to ER and treated the fast heart rate. They did a covid test on me - also positive, my chest xray was negative, but my husbands wasn’t. I demanded HCQ and prednisone for myself, which they ordered and I told them I wanted my husband to have the same treatment. They said they had a protocol for inpatient care and I said I didn’t want that. Several people I knew already got it and died.
He needed O2 so I could not take him out. They worked on getting home o2 and I said I will come and get him, and I could get the HCQ from a doctor that was ordering it for people outside the hospital. They told me if I took him out, he would have to go with no O2! I spoke with 3 different doctors over the next 3 days begging for HCQ to no avail. His condition worsened with the remdesivir. I told them we both had decided no ventilator if ever the chance of survival was not good. They never asked for a living will, which we had, but I was so distressed and sick myself, I really didn’t think about providing it.
By the way, they offered me the monoclonal antibody infusion when I was in the ER. They could not provide me w a drug insert, so I could see what was in it. So, I refused it and told them not to give it to my husband either. They said they don’t have it on their protocol for inpatient.
For 3 weeks I fought with these people. They were not watching his nutrition intake. I demanded G tube feedings or IV lipids/nutrition. He had a picc line. I asked drs if they were doing peer review studies to see if it was working or killing people. They looked at me w blank stares. I raised so much hell that on the day before his death, they started the HCQ. Of course, it was too late by this time, but if they could start it then, why not on the first day I asked. They called me on a Saturday at 5 am and I was taking sleeping medicine so I was groggy, and they said he was worse and he needed to be vented. I said I can be there in 45 minutes, but they said they had to do it now.
Rincon, GA