My Mom was 51 years old, almost 52. Her name was Vickie L. Schneppenheim, she served in the United States Marine Corps for almost half of her life, 25yrs and she was light in such a dark world. She retired and eventually moved from NC back to TX to enjoy family and retirement. In January of this year, she became ill with COVID. She was not one to be very fearful of it. She saw the writing on the wall, refused the COVID vaccine and was very openly opinionated on how disingenuous and perverse the COVID lockdowns, policies and protocols had become. My Mom was more fearful of ending up in the hospital with COVID than she was the actual virus. Her first couple of at-home COVID tests were false negatives so unfortunately, she didn’t seek much for treatment until the virus began to attack her lungs. Her PCM said she could ride it out at home, which I was very concerned about since I had the delta variant months before and it really hurt me. The PCM wouldn’t prescribe the ivermectin treatment, he didn’t believe in it yet everyone I knew who took the medicine recovered just fine. By the time she sought medical attention her O2 was in the mid 80s and her lungs were struggling. This is where hell for our family truly began.

When she arrived at the hospital she was placed in a waiting room for almost 8hrs according to my Dad. She was given high flow but wasn’t administered anything else until she was admitted. The hospital took a long time to actually get to my Mom and by then, she was battling pneumonia, which we later found out was actually COVID pneumonia.

This was during what I believe was the omicron wave but even then, hospitals were aware of how negligent it would be to ignore a patient’s care for that long when battling respiratory COVID issues. Once my Mom was admitted she was moved to ICU within the next couple of days. My Dad was unable to advocate for my Mom as their COVID policies were incredibly strict and only allowed for 1 family member, 1 hour a day for visitation.

I was in FL at this time so my Dad was the primary advocate for my Mom and he fought as much as he could to be there with her. They finally caved and allowed him to stay for 2hrs a day. To us, that was absolutely absurd as it was obvious my Mom wasn’t in the right state of mind to make decisions for her health. She was absolutely terrified and did not want to be alone. My Dad explained to the hospital that he had already recovered from the same thing Mom had but they still insisted that their policy was strict and to be followed.

I believe it was around day 2 or 3 that my Mom was moved to ICU. She was administered remdesivir, something up to this point she was very against. Her and I both had kept up with COVID treatments prior to her getting sick and we started noticing how high the rates of death were in relation to the administering of remdesivir. My Dad said when he walked in for his allotted visitation she had just signed a waiver to get the drug and it was already being administered. Mom texted me letting me know and I knew then that things may very well go south, quickly.

My Mom had been diagnosed years ago with TBI (traumatic brain injury) by the VA due to an injury she had while on a deployment in Afghanistan. My Dad brought this up to the administrators and still, they denied him the proper advocacy for my Mom. Their website at the time did indicate special circumstances where family could be present but to them this apparently was not enough to make an exception.

The next couple of days, voluntary intubation was brought up. They explained it to my Mom as a 98% survival rate when done voluntarily and that “it would just give your lungs a break so you can rest.” to which my Dad and I 100% were against and did not believe. The hospital had to give my Mom antidepressants at this point because she was so fearful that she would not wake up if she slept. They began putting her in the prone position, tried high flow but couldn’t not do a PAP machine because at this point there was an air pocket in her lungs and apparently that machine could cause a rupture if used. This was all while she was being given remdesivir and many other medications. Intubation was brought up again in the next following days and ultimately, Mom thought it would be a 50/50 shot and had been told people survived it so she opted in.

My Mom stayed on the machine for I think 17 or 18 days. My Dad described her coming out of the sedation, trying to rip the tubes out and aggressively reacting to treatments. He said it was as if she was trying to tell him not to leave her there and to take it out. The hospital had to continue to increase my Mom’s sedation because she was fighting it so hard, to include a fentanyl drip that I personally saw when I arrived at the hospital. My Dad and I agreed that her progress was beginning to remain stagnant and wanted to push another medication using the right to try act that gave families the ability to try alternative medicines under the EUA. Her stats actually began to improve shortly after our request and the doctors told my Dad that if she could hold her stats for 48 more hours that they would extubate. We knew her lungs were still significantly damaged so my Dad pushed for that alternative medicine still. The hospital began to go back and forth with her lung specialist via text message, texts that he showed my Dad in the hallway, indicating that the patient’s prognosis was not good enough to justify the money it would cost to install the proper coolant and storage for the alternative medication. Within 24hrs of my Dad seeing those messages, my Mom died. Her primary cause of death was organ failure, the common theme of remdesivir in patients who later died after receiving the drug. My Mom had no comorbidities. She was little bit overweight due to her hormones going through menopause but it was not significant enough to even be considered obese. There was nothing that my Mom had that would have indicated her at high risk.

To this day, I am still mind blown by how poor policies and hospital administrators treated her, and many others. Once they found out that my Mom was not vaccinated, I feel her care changed. The first nurse she had was so rude to my Mom and my Mom even made the comment “I am going to die here if this is the care I am going to get here”… and sadly, she was not wrong. To add further insult to injury, the hospital took almost 2 weeks to sign her death certificate because the doctors were going back and forth with who was to sign it. My Mom was being cremated – they were made aware of this – so she was not able to be embalmed by the funeral home. My Mom’s remains were not there at her viewing services and she began decomposing in the morgue. She was ultimately cremated but it felt like just another level of heartache that should not have happened. I still get sick to my stomach thinking about all that she endured, even postmortem.

Thank you for your time and for helping so many people out there who’ve been so plagued with poor treatment. My family is no stranger to this as my husband was kicked out of the Air Force for refusing the vaccine. Everything that has happened since the beginning of this pandemic has been so backwards and awfully politicized. I have beloved friends who couldn’t finish nursing school and lost jobs due to the insane mandates. Even more friends who were coaxed into the vaccine because they couldn’t afford to lose their jobs… it is truly terrible and an injustice. You are a voice for so many and I thank you for any and all wisdom or direction you can give me on where to start and who to talk to in order to seek justice for my Mom.

I have attached my Moms obituary so you could have an idea of the incredible woman she was. It was never my plan to write it at 30yrs old, right after having my second child. I still cannot find the words to express how awful it has been to lose her and to lose her in this way.

Again, thank you very much for your time and God bless you. Thank you for all you are doing! I hope to hear from you soon.

All the best,

Stephanie Contreras