Our story started on Tuesday Sept 20th, 2021.
Larry was a strong healthy 78 year old man who still worked his heart out running several businesses. He camped, rode horse, farmed and loved his family more than anything!
Larry woke up with a cough and didn’t really think anything of it. He had camped the weekend before and had slept with windows open and just thought it was an allergy issue. His "fall cough" as he called it. He gets it every year. Larry never complained of a fever or body aches he continued to go about his life working and getting things done like he always did. Never did we think he had Covid.
Sunday his oxygen was bad Larry had to be taken to the ER. Larry’s oxygen levels were dangerously low. And this is when the horror story began.
Larry was admitted to BELLIN HEALTH GREEN BAY WI on Sunday September 26 and sent to the Covid ICU with Covid pneumonia, ARDS, and hypoxia. He was given oxygen, medicine and watched closely. We were confident that he would get the care he needed, and we would see him soon. The doctors and nurses were told NO Remdesivir!! We knew how deadly this medication was.
I also had Covid, so our granddaughter and daughter made many daily calls to the hospital for updates. Some days it took hours to get an answer to our calls. We were told he was doing well most days and when asked about what medications he was on they failed to tell us remdesivir. On the 5th day the nurse slipped and stated the medication list and at the end said, "oh and he was given his last dose of remdesivir."
They started sedating him almost right away. Precedex and Morphine the first night he was there. Precedex should not be given for more than 24 hours and he had 5 days of it.
Then the constant calls began about a ventilator. We were constantly told he would be on a ventilator we were a NO vent family!! We knew how dangerous vents were and very aware that the outcome isn’t good!
On Sept 30 Dad Face Timed me. The hospital had been pressuring him to say yes to the vent. We decided only if his life depended on it. At this point they gave him another round of remdesivir and added baricitinib. Dad was a fighter, and the first round didn’t kill him (on the records we received 2nd round is removed). This began his daily decline. We called many times a day and were told he was doing well and improving at one point they even talked about plans for when he went home. All were lies. He wasn’t given food and he was left to lay in bed.
As all this was going on our daughter had a bad feeling something was not right. She wanted to get him out of there. She was told she would be arrested and left in jail until our dad was released out of Covid ward! Why?? To give them time to finish their killing. Our father’s iPad and phone where not given to him. Unless they were with him he had no way to inform us what they were doing to him!
The day before venting we all talked to him on FaceTime as we did daily. He seemed good. Something did happen the previous night that he stated he would talk to me about when he got home. He apparently fell when using the restroom; we have no idea the details. He had a good conversation with one of his granddaughters that night before bed and they talked for 5 minutes or so and he was doing well. "All I do is lay here I could walk out of here today! ", he said last day we spoke to him.
The day he was vented we will never forget. We called all day to Face Time him. Face Time was always at 10am. We received no calls. We continued calling. Finally. a nurse answered at 3:30 pm. We were told he had a good day he was sitting in the chair and oxygen stats were doing well!! The nurse was asked about all the talk of venting. She replied, " no he would not he be vented." 5:30 p.m. that same day I got the worst call of my life. Larry on the iPad with a nurse saying he needs to be vented!!
Larry was in the background. "NO!" The nurse called me back saying he was no longer able to make his own decisions. Insisting I needed to decide now!! I said "yes" as a means to save him!! This would be the last time I spoke to him.
The night Larry came out of the covid ICU his lactic acid was through the roof and his hemoglobin was dangerously low he was. Tests confirmed lactic acid was high and hemoglobin low. That night he needed a blood transfusion as his hemoglobin was dropping.
We prayed all night. We stayed the night in the waiting room!! The next morning my daughter went in his room to see what was going on miraculously he made it the night. All tests showed the bleeding had stopped. From this day on we never left him alone except at night when they made us leave.
Larry was continually sedated (and strapped to the bed) when ask to stop we were told he was fighting the vent!! We wanted him to fight that meant to us he was still there and had a chance!!
Saturday Oct 16th, we got to the hospital early he was heavily sedated. His heart rate 30 and lower for most of the day!! We watched as they adjusted and added medication. We asked for a sedation vacation as the hospital called it so we could talk to him. They did the sedation vacation, so they say but he never woke up. We accused them of overdosing him!! They took him off the morphine at once. Larry still did not wake up that day!! We tried to stay the night but were made to leave.
The next morning, we arrived we were told we made him uncomfortable by taking the sedatives away!!
After that day the sedation went back on. They started giving him fentanyl and ketamine at the time.
He was slowly slipping away. The restraints were removed. He no longer responded to touch or could acknowledge us!! Before this, he could hold our hand, and cry at times. We questioned his medication again and the nurse listed he was back on precedex!! We told her how terrible that medication was and to get him off it at once!!
Precedex is known to remove oxygen out of the blood. Why on earth would you give this to someone needing oxygen! Nurse could not answer. We never saw her again (agitation, slow heartbeats; weak or shallow breathing, cough; feeling light-headed or short of breath; muscle weakness; bradycardia, respiratory failure, atrial fibrillation. These are the side effects. Larry had them all.)
We were never told much after this point except he was a very sick man. The story for the next 20 days stays the same. He was over medicated. Both his heart rate and O2 went up and down. His kidneys were not filtering properly, and he was retaining fluid like crazy. Palliative care was on us often to just let him go. As well as doctors and nurses. We just couldn’t. It was so hard to believe that my healthy happy active ‘love of my life’ could be wasting away.
Finally, we had some hope they talked about a trach, but we had a really small window to do it and we all agreed to try. That never happened as his kidneys were too bad. We were then told he would need dialysis for the rest of his life if he made it through. And there was no way his lungs could recover.
Upon getting medical records we learned all the meds they had given him. Decron Steroid, Propofol, Ketamine, Morphine, Fentanyl, Seroquel, Remdesivir, Baricitinib Plus more… So many of these meds caused him side effects and yet it didn’t matter to anyone, and no one would listen to our cries to stop them.
We finally had no choice but to make the hardest decision ever and had to let him go Nov 06, 2021 after 42 days of suffering and fighting like hell. 42 days. If that doesn’t tell you he is a fighter!!
Cecil, WI