I was not feeling well. My husband took me to an urgent care to get tested for COVID. While waiting to go in my husband said that he wasn’t feeling well and ask to be seen as well. They refused to see him. We were told that if I was positive for COVID then so was he and there was nothing that they would do for him. I was positive for COVID and we were instructed to go home, isolate and rest. If we were not getting better in a week then go to the ER. When I asked about the monoclonal antibodies they said that we were not eligible according to state guidelines. However, if we were still sick in a week we should go to the ER and they would give us the monoclonal antibodies. We both had mild flu symptoms for the first few days.

I was diagnosed on 9/14/21. On 9/17 I started have vertigo and profuse vomiting. My husband developed a bad cough. We both continued to decline over the weekend. I wanted to go to the ER but was too sick and weak. My husband refused to go because it wasn’t sick for a week yet. Our son took us to the ER on 9/21. They gave me IV fluids. I got a lecture from the doctor that this was my fault and we should have gotten the vaccine. He said that I should just suck it up and be prepared for long COVID. My son was with my husband who by this time was having trouble breathing.

They still did not test my husband for Covid. He was sent home with an inhaler after they took radiographs. He was not able to inhale to use the inhaler. They refused to prescribe steroids and once again refused us the monoclonal antibodies. This time they said that it was too long since he first showed signs of covid to get the antibodies. My son told them that his symptoms started on the 14th but they put down the 11th. They said that it was more than 1 week so too late. My son was in nursing school so he kept checking my husband’s blood oxygen levels. Brads levels kept going down.

My son took my husband to the ER at Riverside Methodist Hospital. There they said that he should have received the antibodies but since he now needed oxygen they couldn’t give it to him. When they looked at the radiographs that were taken earlier in the day we were told that he had a collapsed lung.  He was hospitalized, they inserted a chest tube with no anesthesia or analgesics. My husband said that it was excruciatingly painful. One of the nurses cried and said that normally the patient is given something for pain for the procedure. However, COVID patients were not given anything and it was cruel. My husband improved at the hospital at fort on oxygen and steroids. His blood sugar went up so they put him on insulin. He was not diabetic prior to getting COVID.

They would not let him have anything that the frontline doctors recommended. We were even told that we were poisoning him with vitamin D. I couldn’t be there because I was still sick from COVID. My son was allowed to visit a few hours each day. They insisted they my husband needed remdesivir and my husband refused. The staff tried to get my son to talk him into taking it but my son refused. Then the doctor called me at home and said that my husband was not likely to make it out alive and the only small chance he had was the remdesivir. I said no.

My husband would improve and they would increase his oxygen telling us that his levels were dropping. He would get worse on the higher oxygen and then adjust. Each time they would increase it again. On 9/28 or 29th they moved him to ICU and said that he would need to be put on a ventilator. My son stayed with my husband and he stabilized and was doing better. On October 1st he face timed me and sounded really good. He said that he was feeling much better and wanted to come home. I told him that since I had no COVID symptoms for a week and was feeling good I would go in the morning and see about getting him home.

The next morning when I was getting ready to head to the hospital my husband called me in a panic and said that they were going to put him on the ventilator. I was shocked and started asking questions when the nurse took the phone from him and said that they were going to lose him if they didn’t do it. I told her that I was in my way and I would talk to them about it when I got there.

While in the parking lot at the hospital the nurse called me and said that they were losing him and couldn’t wait for me to get up there so I said ok to the ventilator. I went in to the information desk and asked to go up and they called up and told me that I couldn’t see him since he was stable he was not allowed  any visitors. I said that I was just told that he needed to go on a ventilator. This was about 12 noon by now. After several calls back and forth I was told that he was in a procedure and I could go up after. They would not even tell me if that meant placing him on a ventilator or what procedure they were doing.

My sons and I waited all day in the lobby until 7 pm when they said that they were done and we could go up. If it was truly an emergency that he go on the ventilator then it would have been done quickly. And we should have been allowed up within an hour or most likely less. I have talked to several doctors who confirmed that this made no sense. It went down hill from there with being place on IV heparin and bleeding out several times. We had to keep begging them to give him blood and stop the heparin until he finally bled into his lungs. There is a lot more detail but I would prefer to discuss that in the interview. It is a lot to put down here. Thank you for listening to our stories.