I spoke with my brother the evening of Jan 23, 2021. I spoke with him earlier that week and hadn’t heard from him. We spoke just about every day so this was unusual. When I finally got ahold of him I asked him how he was doing and he said “not good” I told him I was going to bring him some soup right away so I jumped in my car with my daughter and proceeded to get him some homemade soup. I called him when I got there around 10pm he said he would come downstairs but never made it down. I called a few times to see what was wrong and he just kept saying he would be down but after an hour of waiting in his parking lot I told him I was going to call an ambulance and he expressed that he would call if he needed to.

I took my daughter home and called to check on him and he told me he called an ambulance so I was relieved in that moment. At about 5am the hospital called and stated they have admitted him although he was still in ER and they didn’t have any beds available yet. During this time they explained he was stable and alert. My sister told me she would do the first shift of calling throughout the day to check on him as I notified family members of him being sick and in the hospital. This was a Saturday. I called later that evening and was told by a nurse he kept asking for his glasses and she couldn’t find them anywhere and felt he might be delusional. I explained that he doesn’t go anywhere without his glasses and could she look for them more.

She agreed she would and then apologized for having to threaten my brother if he didn’t keep his bipap ox2 mask on they would have to ventilate him. She said he told her I’m not afraid of dying I was a victim of a car jacking in 1993 and I’ve been through so much already I do not want to be ventilated ever again. She said his oxygen was good at the time and he was stable although He was agitated because they lost his glasses. She also said his vitals were good as well. This brought me some relief but I was still upset they hadn’t got him a bed yet. It was around 2-3 am on morning of the 24th he barely got a bed and no sooner than an hour later they called me and said they were moving him to an advanced care room.

A few minutes later around 4am my brother called me to let me know they were moving him and he was saying something else but I couldn’t make out what he was saying due to the high flux ox2. Then his phone died. I immediately called back and they wouldn’t let me speak to him. So I said I would call back then around 6am the doctor called me saying he was shutting down and did I know his last wishes? I was in utter shock because the whole time he was described as stable and never did they mention they tried it wee going to ventilate him! Then I got the call that “he didn’t make it despite all their efforts“ around 7 am. This was the most horrible experience of my life.