On April 1, 2021, my beautiful mother Brenda Lee Hendrickson was taken to St. Elizabeth Hospital with a broken hip. She fell in the kitchen while getting up for some water. She was transported by ambulance to St. E's she laid in pain without any pain medication for 8+ hours.
Then they told us in the morning she was positive for Covid-19 she was not feeling well. We were not able to see her at all for her entire stay!!! She went from being a fairly healthy 69-year-old woman to a very frail weak woman. My mother had the fight of a lioness. I could not understand how this turned into such a roller coaster ride of ups and very low downs.
We were told in week 2ish she was not eating, and she was hiding her food in pockets of her hospital gown. We were asked if my mother had an eating disorder and I let them know she does NOT. Her only eating issue is loving food she ate everything she should not have!! They then put in a stomach feeding tube at week 2 or 3. Now mind you she went from needing no oxygen to needing some oxygen to being in ICU to going into to a regular room and improving.
A Saturday they allowed her to Skype visit with us and she was so out of it she would not even open her eyes while talking to us. Her eyes kept just rolling up every time she would open them; for the 2-3 seconds they would stay open. The nurse was getting very frustrated with her it was obvious my mother was being mistreated!!!!
The following Sunday we got a call that she was given Ritalin to increase her appetite and give her energy. By the morning the nurse practitioner who was caring for her called me a let me know they could not get her heart rhythm regular. They actually they said they needed to intubate her because she was not doing well. They were trying to reach my dad. I called my dad he and my sister went to St. Elizabeth Hospital they were then told they cannot get her heart rhythm back to normal and we all need to come to the hospital ASAP to make serious medical decisions regarding my mother. My sisters and father arrived before me the nurse practitioner took them into a room with me on speaker phone and let us know they cannot help - my mother was beyond what they could help with, and her quality of life was next to none, and she would never be the same. So, in essence they were telling/asking us we need to mark her as a DNR because the medicine they have her on is what is keeping her alive and once they take her off it, she will expire after a few hours!!!
My sister and I were so confused in the room with my mother saying this is not right - we are not God we should not make this decision. The nurse overheard us talking and rushed us back into to the room and let us know we are doing the right thing and we should not change our mind. At that point my father had left frustrated and broken hearted and desperate to get my mother out of that hospital. He called their insurance to be sure he could move her to Theda Clark; however, when he called, we had been sitting back in the room with the nurse and nurse practitioner who was caring for my mother, and she took my phone and started yelling at my father - "David you will kill your wife if you try to move her now!!" They proceeded to let us know labeling her as DNR is what's best for her!!
I could not handle it any longer. It did not seem right. My Mother had NO IDEA she was dying they said we shouldn't tell her!! They were just going to give her medicine to keep her comfortable until she passed!! This was horrible IT MADE NO SENSE. My Mother seemed perfectly normal. She was alert, talking, and telling them she needed to go #2. She was coherent responsive until they gave her medication that made her go to sleep and several hours later, she died.
Although my mother was 69 years old, I DO NOT believe she would have died if she was not taken to St. Elizabeth’s Hospital. I think she was given the wrong combination of drugs which is what caused her irregular heart rhythm. I just had to reach out after I read your daughter’s story. I DO NOT THINK their deaths are coincidence. I think this was something much darker. My Mother's death haunts me daily. It was NOT HER time!! You and your family have my deepest sympathy
Minasha, WI