My husband was a well-known defense attorney in our town. He had a client meeting at a local detention facility that was alleged to be COVID free, in late September. Within 3 days spiked a fever of close to 105 but experienced no symptoms other than fatigue.

About three days following his onset of symptoms, I also began experiencing symptoms. During the first week of October, we both began experiencing respiratory symptoms. I organized to have oxygen, a nebulizer and the proper supplement protocol to be delivered to our home by friends.

We stayed at home, suffering with symptoms for roughly a week. My husbands oxygen began to drop dramatically lower and we made, the unwise decision to take him to the Emergency Room.

He was admitted to the hospital from the emergency department, into the ICU step down unit. It was there that he truly began to take a turn for the worse. They placed him on a non rebreather, his oxygen levels increased but he was unable to orally consume nourishment. They also placed him on diuretics as a “precaution” without explanation.

Despite multiple attempts to allow him to be fully hydrated, provided water and for a PICC line be established for nutrition, I was ignored. His oxygen levels continued to fall. He was diagnosed with a secondary infection, placed on antibiotics and I was told that the infection was “too bad”.

I actively disagreed with any protocol that included the use of Remdesivir. However, they asked my husband for consent while his oxygens were far too low for him to be making informed decisions. I was still fighting for access to the hospital to physically be with him and assess him to make the most informed medical decisions.

This continued to be denied. I ultimately threatened legal action against the hospital if I was continued to be denied access. I was eventually granted access after he had been ventilated.

Almost daily the ICU doctor “encouraged” me to place him on comfort care and remove him from the ventilator. Stating that he was too sick to recover and that he would not get better. I refused to place him on comfort care. And I asked for referrals to out of state ECMO centers which were never granted.

I also requested him to be discharged home on hospice, I was told “he would not survive the ride” and this was also refused. On November 1, I was notified that his kidneys had gone into kidney failure, likely due to “infection”, though he didn’t have any indicators of infection.

Though I was granted access, I was only allowed to be at the hospital for a maximum of 4 hours a day and was not allowed to come and go despite having four young children at home to also take care of.

On November 3, when I arrived at the ICU the doctor had the chaplain waiting for me at the door. Overnight my husband had coded, and they had not called me. Though there was initially a DNR in place that neither of us consented to, it had been removed at this time.

I was told that he had also accidentally been extubated at this time. Though he was “still alive”, it was unknown the type of damage was caused from the hypoxia. I realized, when I entered my husbands room that day. That they had killed him. He was no longer in his body. He was gone. It was simply machines keeping him alive.

Thankfully, there was an amazing traveling nurse on duty that day, who helped calm me down and violated the hospitals “visitor policy” to allow all of my children to come and say good bye before he was removed from ventilation. That afternoon, my husbands body was removed from ventilation. His heart stopped beating within 90 seconds.

My husband had been gone since the night before and I know they intentionally tried to kill him due to my refusal to willingly remove him from ventilation and my insistence upon other measures.