My name is Miriam Martinez. My beloved husband is Carlos Alberto Martinez Sanchez.  We have a little girl, and she was about to turn 3 years old when my husband got infected with COVID.

My husband tested positive for the virus on December 10, 2021. The first few days he had a high fever and cough. On December 18, 2021, my husband was feeling a little dizzy and decided to go to the hospital, after I requested him to go and get checked out.

He went to Banner Ocotillo Medical Center in Chandler, AZ. He was admitted the same day (December 18) due to his oxygen level being around 85.  My husband was not 100% English fluent.  My brother was with him when he was told that he needed to stay for 3 days, and he was going to be administered Remdesivir. However, the doctor never explained to him the side effects of Remdesivir.  My husband made it very clear from the beginning that he didn’t want to be intubated.

My husband went to Banner Ocotillo Medical Center just because it was the closest hospital to us. After the doctor said that he had to stay overnight for 3 days, I felt very uneasy for him to stay there.  I feared that his condition could worsen, and I wanted him to be in a hospital that had ECMO.  (ECMO stands for extracorporeal membrane oxygenation.) The ECMO machine is similar to the heart-lung by-pass machine used in open-heart surgery.  It pumps and oxygenates a patient’s blood outside the body, allowing the heart and lungs to rest.

My husband and I had a previous conversation where we decided that we were not going to be put on the ventilator if our condition ever worsened.  This was after we had seen a CNN report talking about ECMO being a far better treatment than the ventilator. We decided that we would only agree to use ECMO, since we read previously that ECMO had a much higher survival rate than the ventilator.

During my husband’s first week in the hospital, I found that St. Joseph’s Hospital in Phoenix, AZ, had ECMO, and I read an article that they had a much higher survival rate. I also called the Mayo Clinic and was told that they had ECMO as well. I wanted to transfer him to one of those hospitals, and I spoke with my husband about this. He agreed that it was better for him to be moved, and he also mentioned the poor treatment he was receiving at the hospital. For instance, he was forced to wait for over 2 hours for someone to finally come and help him use the urinal.

I called the doctor at Ocotillo told them that my husband wanted to be transfered, and they immediately decline our request. I was told that we could leave if he left on his own and against medical orders. I took their advice, and I found an ambulance to pick him up and take him to either hospital.  However, the ambulance company was turned down by the hospital. The hospital didn’t provide any information to the ambulance company such as what level of oxygen he needed.

Finally, the ambulance company told me that they couldn’t help me, because of the hospital’s refusal, and because my husband was leaving against medical advice.  The only way we had to transfer my husband to another hospital was for Ocotillo Hospital to initiate a hospital-to-hospital patient transfer.

On December 24, 2021, I received a called from Puneet Kayal, internist, that my husband had to be intubated due to his low oxygen. I begged him to allow me to see my husband before proceeding. I couldn’t really talk to my husband, because he was already heavily sedated, and he only was able to ask me for water.

I told Dr Kayal that I didn’t want him to be intubated, and he told me that they had my husband’s permission. I was told that my husband was asked about the intubation with the help of an interpreter during the previous week, and he had agreed to be intubated. However, he was never told that he was going to be placed in a medically induced comma as part of that procedure. I was told that his decision overwrote whatever I wanted.  My husband was very clear that he never wanted to be in a comma as well.

I made very clear that I wanted to transfer him to a facility that had ECMO, since this was the first time I was talking to this new doctor. Dr Puneet Kayal told me that he was previously an ECMO doctor himself. He told me that for my husband to ever be considered for ECMO, he had to be already intubated. He promised me that he would add him to the Arizona State ECMO waiting list, and he would talk to his supervisor about ECMO for my husband.  My husband was put on the ventilator on December 24, and that would be the last day I ever saw him awake.

During the first week on the ventilator, my husband got another internist by the name of Dr. Lung. She is the most cruel, unprofessional and rude person you could meet.  During my first conversation with her, I asked about my husband’s condition and if he had a bowel moment already.  She cruelly laughed at me and told me that the was the last thing I should be asking about my husband.  He had bigger problems.  She only spoke professionally when she had another person in the line with her.  She is pure evil.

For the following week, I spoke countless times with the doctor, nurse and other staff regarding his condition and his transfer. I was told each time that they were understaffed, and they had no time to check with other hospitals if there was ability to transfer my husband.  I was told that I had to do it myself, and find an accepting hospital, and then Ocotillo could proceed with the transfer. Keep in mind that I was told that my husband was still on the Arizona State ECMO waiting list.

I called tens of hospitals that had ECMO to try to initiate the transfer of my husband, and every single time I spoke with the hospital I was told the same story. I was told that my husband’s hospital had to contact them, and no hospital within the USA allows patients to initiate the transfer. I wasted almost a week to find out that Ocotillo knew that and they just sent me to waste my time calling other hospitals.  I called from UCLA all the way to John Hopkins.

I decided to contact the ABC 15 News channel to bring light into my husband’s case, and that he was technically kidnapped by the hospital.  However, ABC15 made the news piece about the unvaccinated and not so much about my husband’s case. The next day after the release of the interview, I went to see my husband in the ICU, and his nurse came to me screaming and crying. She told me that she saw the interview, and she couldn’t believe that I was talking bad about them. I told her that I knew she was a nice person and I was talking about the hospital not her. She responded that I was talking about her co-workers and how did I dare to do that. I knew at that moment that she didn’t care about my husband. The nurse only cared about herself and her co-workers interests, not the patient. I have most of the conversation recorded after this incident. The nurse and doctor told me that they were not going to talk to me anymore.

At this point, the harassment and retaliation got exponentially worse.  I asked everyday if they had sent my husband’s latest stats to the ECMO line, and I was told that he never qualified for ECMO because of his weight. They lied to me about my husband ever having a possibility of getting into ECMO.

I was so desperate that I started calling to hospitals around Mexico to check if they could accept my husband.  I found two hospitals with ECMO that were willing to on my husband’s case. The first Hospital from Monterrey, Mexico.  They had beds available for ECMO, and they wanted to look at this records to determine if they could take him.  Ocotillo Hospital was super aggressive with them and turned them down immediately claiming that since they were Mexican doctors, they didn’t have privileges to enter a USA hospital in order to connect my husband to the ECMO machine.

My husband’s condition had worsened. I was advised by the Mexican doctors that the only way to fly him out to Mexico was by having my husband cannulated to the ECMO machine otherwise it was not safe.  Ocotillo then said that they didn’t have a surgeon to cannulate my husband to the ECMO machine. I reminded them that Dr. Kayal had said that he was an ECMO doctor and I asked for him to do it then.  Dr Kayal responded that he had never worked with ECMO before.  He lied to me once again.  I was also told that ECMO was more likely for the vaccinated. Yet, again, misleading information to waste my time.

I finally found ECMO Mexico, and they wanted to care for my husband. ECMO Mexico are highly skilled doctors trained here the USA and know English fluently.  They tried like the previous doctors contact the hospital to acquire my husband’s latest stats, but met the same denial. However, they asked me to read to them the numbers I was seeing on the machine, and they were able to get a good idea on my husband’s condition.

ECMO Mexico gave me the contact of ECMO PRN which is a company based out of California. ECMO PRN not only transports patients, but they themselves are the people who train doctors and hospitals on the use of ECMO.  They were willing to go to Ocotillo Hospital and cannulate my husband to be transported to Mexico.  However, Ocotillo Hospital denied the emergency authorization for ECMO PRN to cannulate my husband.

ECMO PRN had it’s own doctor and team ready to cannulate my husband. A specialist from ECMO PRN had a meeting with the Banner Ocotillo Hospital’s CFO to discuss my husband’s case, and he was once again denied entrance.  I was willing to sign whatever document they wanted to release them from any liability, but just allow my husband go.  I was told by  ECMO PRN that he had never seen this level of aggression and red tape before. He said something is going on, I have never seen this before.  He said that he had worked with so many other hospitals, and never seen what was happening to my husband.  This conversation was recorded.

By this point, I had already hired a patient advocacy nurse to help me navigate the hospital since they no longer wanted to talk to me.  During a call with Dr. Lung, she told me that during the a meeting regarding my husband it was decided that he was never leaving unless he was hooked to the ventilator or death. They knew if we tried to take him with the ventilator he would most definitely die.  Dr. Lung said that at the end, the Hospital is per profit and it’s business.  For the love of money, they killed my husband.

At the end, my beloved husband couldn’t hold on anymore, and he went to heaven on January 8, 2022.

He now is with our savior Jesus Christ.

He was kidnapped by Banner Ocotillo Hospital and then subsequently murdered.

I came to find out after looking at his medical records that he had to be resuscitated 3 days before his passing and the evil doctor never told me about it.

I pray that God will someday give all of us justice for everything that was done to our loved ones.

I wish to pursue legal action against Ocotillo Hospital and staff for medical wrongful death and malpractice.  Other hospitals in this country had released patients to be transported to be placed in ECMO.  My husband was killed due to the hospital incompetence, retaliation against me, love of money and red tape. I had everything to transport my husband including transportation, funds, insurance, receiving hospital and the willing to release Ocotillo hospital from all responsibility. Banner Ocotillo decided to keep him, knowing he was going to die for sure under their care. Had my husband left against medical advice, Banner Ocotillo wouldn’t have received the $350,000 plus payment that they received from my private insurance.

For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. 1Timothy 6:10