In late July of 2021, my nephew and his girlfriend brought Covid into the basement of my mother’s home!  My stepfather, William Hale, was stubborn and we told him several times to stay out of the basement, as he had prior history of a heart condition. He contracted Covid and spread it to my niece and mother.  My mother was handling it really well as she was staying active and cleaning constantly including taking vitamins etc. She just had back pain and a cough!  My stepdad decided to self treat with Nyquil and Dayquil and wouldn’t get out of bed. He kept laying around and sleeping most of the day with repeated warnings from all of our family to move around. He wouldn’t and rapidly went downhill after a few days.  We finally talked him into going to the hospital on August 1, 2021. Later that evening, my niece was feeling bad and she has underlying conditions as well. She went to the hospital  hoping to get put with my stepdad. She has never been separated from my mother and was scared once she was admitted. Her and my stepdad were immediately started on an IV, administered Remdesivir and put on oxygen.  My stepdad’s oxygen was doing well at first. After the second dose of Remdesivir, their oxygen levels started dropping and they were administered a different mask.

Although my mother was only having backpain and a cough, she was scared for my niece because of the isolation. She thought if she went to the hospital, they’d put her in the same room as my niece.   She was  denied, admitted and isolated on August 4, 2021. So now, all three of my family members were hospitalized, isolated and scared. My stepfather started to rapidly decline, so we asked my mother to find out what medications were being given to them.  All three were given Remdesivir.

We started researching this medication outside of google on duckduckgo. There I found several articles pertaining to Remdesivir for treatment of Ebola. In these articles, it was stated that the drug caused rapid organ failure, lead to death in over 50% of patients and they were forced to pull the medicine. I immediately told my mother to stop taking it and she did for my stepfather and niece as well. When she requested the medications be stopped, requesting alternatives,  she was refused any other medicine repeatedly unless she took the Remdesivir.  (Same with my niece and stepfather.)  My stepfather was on oxygen full mask by now and declining. My niece refused anything, but oxygen and food. She finally signed herself out of the hospital (against doctor’s orders),  is alive and well today. As for my mother,  after a couple of doses of Remdesivir, her oxygen kept dropping as well, but it wasn’t too bad.  Since she was denied any other treatment, she finally broke and said she didn’t know what else to do. She asked us to come get her and take her to Baptist East hospital, but she didn’t want to leave her husband there because they wouldn’t transport him right down the street in his condition.  My mom then said she was going to go ahead and take the Remdesivir.

That night they made my stepdad call his family saying if his condition did not improve by morning, they were going to intubate him. A couple of hours later, we got a devastating call saying he coded and they were working on him. They ventilated him while doing so on August 7, 2021.

My mother was hysterical and isolated.  They wouldn’t let her out of bed nor give her food or water. She laid on her stomach for hours and my mother was very claustrophobic.  She didn’t like laying on her stomach and wasn’t allowed out of bed except to go to bathroom.   Her oxygen declined rapidly after receiving the Remdesivir and we didn’t know why. That night my mother told me (I’ll never forget it), “Steven I feel like shit.”  My mother didn’t cuss and was a very religious woman. She said she was gonna rest and would call me in the morning. The next morning, I messaged and tried calling her several times to no avail. I went to work thinking she was just asleep.  When I  was pulling up to my first job,  my sister called me hysterical.  She said our mom just called her crying saying she couldn’t breathe and then she was gone. They worked on her for awhile and couldn’t bring her back. She passed away on August 11, 2021.  They said it must have been a blood clot that went to her lung, but we knew it was Remdesivir.  My stepdad was still barely hanging on as he coded a couple more times.  His kids were out of state and had to authorize any other treatment since my mother passed. His kids arrived and the ventilator was removed a few hours later on August 15, 2021.

This was the worst nightmare I have ever lived through!  I’ve never been so devastated.  Our mother was our world.  We all leaned on her for everything. She raised three grandkids since birth.  All three are disabled without  my mother or stepfather. My stepdad has been in my life since I was 12. I’m now 44. I had to take in one of my nephews and my sister took in my niece because they have no relationship with their mother, my other sister.  We’ve all been through hell since we lost them. We are traumatized and cry daily. I want justice for them. They didn’t deserve to die, isolated, alone, scared, afraid and tortured to a slow miserable death! This is still very hard to talk about!