Conrad was not feeling well August 25, 2021.  Like others, he thought he had a sinus infection, so he was treating it with OTC meds. On the 27th of August he had a doctor’s appointment for something else.  Since she was a family friend, she had advised him to get tested.

On August 28th, he received the dreaded call that he tested positive for COVID-19. The doctor at urgent care did not treat him for anything, just tested him. They had told him that he may be eligible for antibodies.  I later found out that the urgent care had reached out to him by phone.  He never received the messages because he was sick and was sleeping most of time – not answering his phone.

In January of the same year, we had sold our house and were living with his mom and a friend along with our daughter.  Conrad and I were the only ones not vaccinated.  He was the only who got COVID-19.

On Saturday the 28th of August, he couldn’t take it.  He had a bad headache and a slight fever, so I took him to a smaller hospital; it’s like an urgent care with more services.  Doctors confirmed he had COVID-19, and gave him a steroid and an antibiotic along with Tylenol for his headache.

After three days, he said he started to feel like was going to “kick this crap,” and was eating and drinking, trying to move around.  Keep in mind there were five if us in the house, and he was being isolated in his room to avoid spreading it to the rest of us.  By day five, he was starting to feel sick again and he said he was having trouble breathing.  I took him once again to the small ER on September 3rd.  At this time, they said he still had COVID-19, but now he was showing signs of pneumonia.

After being there almost all day, they said he could come home.  During this time, they were not allowing family members to be there with them, so I had to drop him off and pick him up.  Do I think they were racists for him not being vaccinated?  Absolutely!  I remember the nurse asking me why we weren’t vaccinated.  I responded with, “There is not enough known about it yet.  It is Still experimental.”  He was like well he may not have been this sick. [If he had taken the vax.]

When I picked him up, they sent him home with an oxygen tank of 2 liters, and said a company would be contacting us to give him a mobile device that produces oxygen as well and a tank with more oxygen.

He looked so fragile and was so tired he could barely stand up.  I bright him back home, isolated him, treated him with OTC meds for headache and congestion.  He had one good night then after that it went downhill.

On the night of September 4 , 2021, he struggled to breathe.  He was in the shower, and I remember him yelling for me.  I had to help him get out of the shower and get dressed.  Hi s oxygen had dropped from 94 to 85.  He was not taking right, and didn’t know where he was at.

I called 911.  They arrived shortly.  We lived about five miles from a hospital.  This wasn’t my first  choice for him to go there.  The EMT who came said he had to take him to the closest hospital.  I said, “Why can’t you just take him somewhere else?”  I had heard horror stories about the Banner Ironwood Hospital – not only from patients, but from employees as well.

He was admitted September 5th in the early hours.  It took almost two days before I could get an update on his status. It took two – three days for him to get placed in a room.   When I finally got a hold of someone, I asked to speak with the doctor who was caring for him.  That took about two days.  When I finally did I asked what the plan was, the doctor says they follow protocol, and everyone is busy.  I suggested he get in touch with doctors at the Mayo Clinic.  Boy, did I get my hands slapped for even suggesting such a thing!

Nurses  took forever to return calls for updates.  This was when patients who had COVID-19 were not allowed to have visitors and there were a lot of traveling nurses.  A time when nurses were getting paid big sign-on bonuses, for working six to seven days straight.  Major overtime to be had.

After a week, the nurses all knew who I was.  I called four times a day and then again at night.  My husband wasn’t able to call me at times, so he would send very short text messages when he could.  He was so depressed saying it was a struggle to breathe.  So I did what I thought was best and I started to bring food drinks and snacks to the nursing staff.  I figured if I was nice to them, they would be more attentive to my husband.  It seemed to work.

There were a couple of nurses who were just do damn lazy.  Finally on September 22nd, I was given the go-ahead to come see my husband.  He didn’t look the same.  I think they thought if I could see him I could help him get better. I think it did help, cause he seemed to improve with his oxygen during the day when I was there. It wasn’t until late at night around 10 or so where he would decline. His pulmonologist kept saying he’s not getting better, it’s a wait-and-see game.  He asked me, “What do I want to do?”  Of course said, “I want him to live, to get out of here!”

Would get updates from nurse and doctor while I was visiting him.   He never really showed any signs of improvement.   He just couldn’t breathe without the aid of the vent.  Every time they tried to reduce the sedation and oxygen level, he would go into shock.   The doctor kept saying they have to try to wean him to get him into rehab.  He would continue to get more infections and his blood work showed signs of his body shutting down.

The week leading up to his death, several things occurred,   On October 9th when they were moving him from the prone position to the supine position, during the move one of the staff members knocked out his carotid artery. There was blood everywhere.  I tried not to panic since I knew the staff was freaking out.  They quickly replaced it, and worked to get his oxygen level back up and his blood pressure back to normal.  When they knocked it out, his body went into shock.

Later that evening, hospital staff not the nurses came in to change his bed sheets that were bloody.   Most nurses not all of them, recognized  that anytime when they changed his sheets or gave him a sponge bath that they would need to adjust his sedation levels and his oxygen.   When they turned him to switch out the sheets they turned him a little too much and too rough.   His body went into shock once more.  His oxygen level went way low and his blood pressure was low.  The alarms on his machines went off.   His traveling fill-in nurse came in looking all rattled.  Said she had the patient next door to care for as he was not doing well and that she would check on my husband as soon as she could.   She called radiology on call and they said, “Oh, he will bounce back, just keeping doing what they have done before.”   That was not the case.  It took several hours before his blood pressure and oxygen level to get back to normal.  I believe that was his downfall to the week leading up to his passing.

In the next couple of days, the doctor would advise that he would need to be on continual dialysis now, as he was retaining more fluids and getting another infection.  I said, “Okay, well, if this will help him.”  The doctor said it’s not a guarantee, but will try it. ,I think at that point he was body was already shutting down because when I would check his lab results on the portal, the numbers were so high for certain areas and low for other ones. Doctors would just tell me that’s what happens when they’ve been in here for so long, and they’ve been lying in bed and getting so many meds.

Conroy would start continual-dialysis On October 11th, and would do that for the next couple of days. I spoke to the nurse advocate and she asked me what kind of care I would like for my husband, and what last measures I would like done – basically forcing me, and stating that I wouldn’t want them to cut him open only for him to be tortured.  If he doesn’t survive, then they would cut him open, so I had to sign something stating that do not resuscitate if he stops breathing.  The nurse advocate said that that’s what they were having most of the patient’s family members do because of the torture they would be under if he stopped breathing.

At this time, I had been visiting him for about 26 to 27 days,  I was tired because I was spending all day at the hospital then going home just to sleep because I had to be out by 7 P.M., and I couldn’t return until 10:00 a.m. the next morning, because that’s what the visiting hours were.

He seem to do much worse at night. I called multiple occasions getting a check up about him at midnight from one of the nurses, talking to him over the phone, so he could hear my voice, telling him that everything was gonna be all right, because his oxygen levels dropped so much in the evening, and then they would struggle to get it back up by the morning, when I would arrive.

On October 14th, I left him for the evening and he appeared to be doing the same, no real change.  He was still relying on the sedation, the anxiety meds, the oxygen and high oxygen levels.  On the morning of October 15th, I got a call from the nurse, the nurse advocate, indicating that he had made a turn for the worse, and that his body was sepsis. It was not a call I had expected, because when I left him that evening, he appeared to be fine and not suffering in anyway. When I voiced my concerns about why wasn’t I called in the evening if he was struggling because the advocate had mentioned that he had taken a turn for the worse at night, and they tried to get it under control. On that morning, she had indicated that he would not survive throughout the night and that we needed to get down there to pay our say our goodbyes, and to decide when to take off the ventilator.

Unfortunately, one of our three daughters was in Las Vegas and I needed to call her and let her know of the news, and get her on a plane and back to Arizona in order for her to say goodbye to her dad.  According to the doctor, nurses hospital staff, there was nothing else they could do for him after being on the ventilator for 31 days.  His body was no longer responding and shutting down.  Doctor said that once they remove the oxygen or the ventilator from him that he would probably not breathe on his own.

That morning when I arrived at the hospital to be at his bedside, the staff had asked which of your three daughters would you like to be here with you, because you can only have you and one other person here.  I responded with, “Well, how would you do it if you had to pick one daughter out of three to be here to say goodbye.  That’s very inhumane and not logical.” Fortunately, the nurse allowed all three daughters plus myself to be at the hospital with him to say our goodbyes.

Around 5:34 P.M., he took his last breath.  He survived solely on the ventilator during his entire stay, where he was when he was intubated for COVID-19 pneumonia which had taken over his body.

At first when this all happened, I wasn’t looking for legal action. The reason I want to speak on his behalf and make sure that this doesn’t happen to anybody else.  Had they treated him a little bit more quickly, knowing that he wasn’t vaccinated. When I mentioned to the doctors if they could give him the ivermectin, I got shot down, and I said I would sign something that says it’s okay for him to have it. I’ll take responsibility if he doesn’t respond or if things go worse.  It couldn’t have been any worse than what he was getting.  Period.

I think at the time, when he was admitted, and during his stay was the height of COVID-19.  they had a lot of traveling nurses, and a lot of nurses who were in it for the money.  Several family members that I know who work in the medical field, said it was all political even the nurses during his stay who that I would talk to said it was all political, and that their hospitals were getting a lot of money for COVID-19 patients being admitted on the ventilator, and if they passed away.

Unfortunately, my husband died the month before his 53rd birthday. He would not get to see his other two grand children born. Do I think things would’ve been differently if he would’ve been vaccinated?  Who knows, and that’s beside the point, because I was not vaccinated either and I never got COVID-19.  At this point, I just want somebody to take responsibility for what they did and didn’t do for how they were treating these patients during the height of COVID-19.  I think things would’ve been much different had they recognized how severe he was.

Thank you for taking the time to read about our story.