Manny was awake and coherent and even told Lauren several times that he loved her.
On August 12, 2021, Manny called me and asked me to call him an ambulance, because he was having extreme difficulty breathing. He had just received a positive Covid test the day before. Our daughter Lauren and I rushed over to his apartment once we made the call, and we found the EMTs inside. One of them told us that his O2 level was in the 60s and that he was almost grey in color. Manny was awake and coherent and even told Lauren several times that he loved her. They ended up taking him to the closest hospital in the area which also happens to be known as the worst one as well.
Immediately Put on a Vent
“That was a Wednesday night, we never saw him alive again. ”
We followed and within about 30 minutes of him arriving, an ER Doctor came outside where we were waiting in my truck (it was too hot to wait outside, and they wouldn’t even let us in the building) and told me that they had immediately already put him on a ventilator, and I believe even gave him Remdesivir as well. That was a Wednesday night, we never saw him alive again. He died the next Thursday afternoon. August 19, 2021. We were not allowed to visit. We tried to call several times a day but not too much because we knew the staff was busy and short. But we now wish we would have called more. We were hardly ever able to get in touch with anybody for whatever reason. Also, we never got to hear from any doctors or aske about anything pertaining to him or his care. When we did get somebody on the phone, I feel like either it wasn’t even his nurse, or they were just giving us very vague information either way.
More Remdesivir
The first couple of days, they did tell me that he’d gotten more doses of Remdesivir. At the time, I had no idea what that would do to somebody, or I promise you I would have done things differently. I didn’t know. That alone is why it is so important for us to get our stories out and make everybody involved held responsible. The next few days, we could not get anybody on the phone to get any kind of update or anything whatsoever. We did talk to a couple of administrators like case managers. I’m not sure of one of the female’s names but the male we spoke to was named Devin. The next day we spoke to somebody asking if we’d give permission to take him off the vent, but we said no. We asked them to do everything they could for him because he wanted to live and be a part of Lauren’s life as much and as long as possible. They tried a few times over that week to talk us both into taking him off but we said no every time.
Then Thursday afternoon, Lauren came to have lunch with me and as we were about to leave so I could go back to work, we got a call from another woman at the hospital. She again asked us to consider taking him off life support. We again said no, to please do all they can to help him. She said they would put him on palliative care and that we could come see him and then make further decisions from there if we decided to. So, we were heading up to the hospital and when we got inside, about 20 minutes after the phone call, it took another 20-25 minutes for them to let us go up to his room. Right as we were about to go in, 2 nurses stopped us and told us to come into the nurse’s station first. There a nurse named Emily proceeded to tell us that in the time it took for us to get there that Manny had passed away. Of course, we were in complete shock and despair, and we definitely were not considering all the awful things that most likely actually happened.
Cover Up
“It is so important that we fight for our loved ones that suffered this way and tell others as well as holding the guilty ones accountable!”
I honestly feel like that was a cover-up, a stall tactic. When they finally let us go into his room, there was hardly any equipment in there at all. There was a large suction container still hanging on the wall and it was FULL of a thick black liquid. I also noticed some of what looked to be the same stuff on his face. But again, though I was suspicious and curious, I didn’t address it. I was naïve and stupid. I sometimes feel like he’d actually died sooner and that the phone call that day was “just a formality” you know so they can say they called and that it all just happened the way it did just to cover their a&$, and the conversation with the nurse in the back of the nurse’s station was a stall tactic, etc. Also, because I just can’t believe that in less than an hour from the time I got the phone call that day, that he died and they had time to clear the room of any and all medical equipment and make it look like nothing ever happened and he was just sleeping. Again, therefore it is so important that we fight for our loved ones that suffered this way and tell others as well as holding the guilty ones accountable!
