My husband woke up with trouble breathing.  We thought maybe it was related to a heart procedure that he had done. However, he had a 30 day clearance from that procedure and all was good.  We called the cardiologist and he saw him right away.  I had to push him in a wheelchair.  At the cardiologist, his temperature, blood pressure, oxygen levels and EKG were all normal, but the cardiologist sent us to the emergency room.  He thought my husband was developing a blood clot in his lungs.  All his medical records and heart specialists were in Atlanticare, it was close to Christmas, so he could not get an appointment with a pulmonologist.  We went to Atlanticare and he tested positive for Covid.  The last I saw him, I pushed him into a room where I was screamed at to get out.  There were no beds so he was sent from place to place for a few days.  We asked for monoclonal antibody treatment and were told that they do not do that at Atlanticare.  They gave him Remdesivir and from what I know now, that was his downfall.

There was no communication from anyone, but one very kind nurse (Jenn).  No one would return calls.  Our only communication was via Facetime, which did not allow us to see the whole picture of how he was failing, and we could not advocate.  On the morning of 12/29, his nurse, Jenn, called me to say he had a rough night, but he would be ok and that he had gotten my text, ate breakfast and would call me soon.  It was about 10/15 minutes after that call, someone called to tell me he had gotten out of bed, fell and his oxygen level dropped and he needed to be placed on a ventilator and have an arterial line inserted.  I asked for an explanation and they were only worried about me giving consent.  I did, as I trusted them.

I later called back and spoke to Jenn to see what was going on and she said she was shocked because she had just gotten off the phone with me.  I called ICU later that evening as instructed for an update. They told me I would need to call back in the morning and that they would try to set up an Ipad so I could see and talk to him.  The next morning someone called and said he was in kidney failure, needed to go on dialysis,  his other organs were shutting down and he could have brain damage.  I needed to decide what measures for them to take.  I needed time to call my daughter and make a decision.  I knew he would not want to live as a vegetable or be on dialysis so I decided no measures.  They did advise that I could come in, but that I would have to gown up, and stay outside his room to say good bye.  My daughter and I went down and said good bye (if you could call it that) as we were no where near him, just looking in through a glass window.