Our mother got sick when our brother went to his high school dance and brought back Covid. She went into the hospital and it wasn’t long before they placed her on the ventilator. They didn’t give her the care she needed. The physical therapy team refused doctor’s orders and they took her off the vent without a proper trial.  Dr. Matthews said he told them to wait until he got there on Monday and he was upset they did not wait on him because he was going to perform a tracheotomy.  He said that the oxygen in her nose was going to burn up her brain.  They fed her when she was not cleared to eat.  The lady who was authorized to do this was mad at them and said they knew better. They really could have killed our mom based on what they were doing.  Someone else had cleared our mom on the computer who was not authorized to do so. Then they told Amy to hold our mom’s head back while they stuffed in a feeding tube and they messed up on it causing her to wheeze.  Amy brought that to their attention.

The first time off the vent, mother said she’d get better care in her own bathroom and that they were going to kill her, but the nurse made me leave. She had a doctor puncture her lung.  One night our dad was called and told that mom was conscious enough to speak for herself about going on the vent; then they said she wasn’t.  Our dad said if it’s the only way to save her life then do it and they finally said okay (this conversation was recorded). Some went to give her blood and said they got the wrong bag and the other lady said it’s okay it is all the way downstairs it doesn’t matter.  I heard this as a nurse was making me leave she told me visiting was over. The doctors said they were on different teams and when mom got Dr. Gregg she woke up and then he left expecting her to be better, but the week passed and she got worse. I went to check on her in the room where it was dark and nurse Morgan told me she had been giving mom morphine all week and she had the right to make that call. She made me dress her wounds. I have audio. The lady over the hospital said that a nurse doesn’t have a right to make that call and it’s against rules for me to dress her wounds. It was not documented she gave our mom morphine until Friday morning, but she gave it all week long and the person who ordered the morphine used her maiden name instead of what was on her name tag, her marital name.

The doctors at Regency had not read mom’s chart.  We found that out when Dr. Greg got back because he had got back the same day our mom was getting transferred. The doctors agreed she shouldn’t come, but a lady over the floor came running in and said the system was overrode and the ambulance was coming back to get her. Dr. Greg said he had never heard of doctors orders being overrode. She got to St. Francis and Dr. Phillips told our dad and aunt that mom had ammonia on the brain from the other hospital and that is the only reason she’d pass and it did a lot of damage. Dr. Phillips said she should have been home in January. Dr. Walpole put her on a medicine another doctor took her off of.

The people at Easley tried to give her ADHD medicine and said they were prepared to treat her seizures just to wake her up after Morgan gave her all that morphine. Going back to the other hospital at Regency, Dr. Walpole would not give mom a brain scan, he was so cold.  A doctor came to the room with NP Dajan to give mom dialysis and this doctor had never met mom.  It was his first time seeing her.  He asked Dajan if all her blood work was good to go and Dajan said yes, but then showed him something on his phone. The doctor then said to me that mom was brain injured and he had other patients. Dajan placed his hands on him and pushed him down the hallway.  I got in touch with Dr. Greg and he told me that he had checked mom’s ammonia levels and they weren’t high.  He also told me that Dajan the NP, that dialysis new sometimes she had episodes, but he was never worried about mom’s kidneys.  I have our conversation on recording.

Mom answered our questions regarding where her wedding rings were by blinking to us yes and no.  I know he was lying because he could not prove to me that she had no brain activity.  Dr. Greg did a scan before mom came to this rehab and he said her brain was fine. He had proof. Mother’s pulmonary doctor at Regency told me he didn’t know what Easley was talking about because mom had been off the vent the whole day. Her lungs had no sign of damage like they had claimed, and she’d be off the vent completely really soon. Her wound nurse showed me how her wounds were healing which was so good. A nurse told me at Regency you only get out two ways, “your transferred or go out in a body bag.”  I asked one nurse if he could assist removing some of the fluid from my mom’s mouth.  He showed me how to do it and left. I was determined to clean mom up, but she wouldn’t open her mouth so I said, “mom it’s me” and she did.  She could definitely hear us and knew it was us.

Dr. Walpole told me if I could find my mom another doctor, he’d be happy to transfer her.  I went looking and when I got to Greenville Memorial Hospital a security guard told me that was wrong of him. He said for me to go to the police department and get two policemen to go up to the floor with me to intimidate Dr. Walpole into doing what was right and finding mom another doctor.  I went to the police department and was told me he couldn’t see anything criminal so he did not go back to the hospital with me. I know mom would be alive today if she’d never went to the hospital. Camera access on every bed would be good so we can always see and hear what is going on with our loved ones from our phones, even if they are in surgery.  Also, not so many doctors in and out on one patient. There’s a lot improvements that need to be made.