Doug went to the ER because of a pneuthorax, in which air was leaking out of the center chest cavity and it caused his face to swell. When I was made to leave the ER, I heard Doug specifically tell the nurse that he did not want Remdesivir or the ventilator. They did not even tell him that he was getting that medicine. I found out when they moved him out of isolation and I was finally able to be with him. After the 10 days of isolation, Doug begged the doctor to switch him out of the Covid ward, so that I could be with him. Once I was with Doug, I could tell he was going down hill.  After researching his symptoms, it took days of me telling the nurses that Doug was going into septic shock.

Finally, a night nurse told the doctor and the next day they started antibiotics. However, his IV had been in too long and the medicine leaked out all over the bed. Remdesivir was causing Doug’s lungs to fill up with fluid, so breathing was getting difficult. He was transferred to the ICU and they started more fluids in a new IV. They also started sedatives and did not tell us! I noticed Doug was getting loopy and his breathing was getting shallow.

After a big fight, I made them stop the medication. Around 2:00am in the morning, 15 nurses/techs entered Doug’s room trying to convince him that he needed the ventilator. It was a big fight and screaming match.  They removed Doug’s bipap mask depriving him of oxygen, while screaming at both of us that he needed the ventilator.  Once his oxygen levels dipped down into the 70’s, he looked at me and then them and said ok.  I was still demanding no!  But they did not listen to me.

The next day, Doug was fighting the ventilator and the nurse snarkily said he wouldn’t of done that if I didn’t make them stop the sedatives. So they were planning all along to put him on the ventilator and never told us!  The doctor made the decision to give paralytics on top of the steroids that they were already giving him. This combination causes a reaction to the nerves to sever from the muscles and it takes a long time to heal back to be able to move again.

The doctor kept telling me to sign the DNR and think of Doug’s quality of life.  That his lungs were shot and that he needed a lung transplant but he is too old to get one.  Doug’s body was beginning to swell all over but he was still hanging on.  As I was sitting there praying over Doug, the doctor hurriedly swept into the room began pressing buttons on his ventilator and then, left the room.

It was about 5 minutes later Doug went into distress.  I ran into the hall to get help and the nurse, RT, and doctors ran in to revive him.  I know now that the doctor had blown out Doug’s lung when he was pressing all the buttons.  The left side of Doug’s lung had collapsed and they emergency placed tubes in both of his lungs. The Urology doctor was called in and Doug did dialysis for several days to help remove all the fluid in his body. After several weeks Doug was finally stabilizing and they began to take him off the sedatives. The hospital nurses resented me being there 24/7 and questioning their every move.  But I HAD to be there because I caught/prevented a lot of mistakes that would have been deadly.

It wasn’t long maybe another week or so and they were shipping him out to a long care facility. I chose Carolina Continued Care in Charlotte, NC hoping that a bigger city would have better doctors.  The facility was adjacent to Atrim Hospital where Doug did finally receive better care.  The long care facility was not very good but fortunately Doug spent most of his time next door at Atrim Hospital, where he was finally weaned from the ventilator and not secretly given drugs to keep him asleep. Then, it was on to Wake Med Hospital for rehabilitation and 6 months later we are home.  I thank the Lord everyday for His mercy and grace for saving Doug.