Collinsville, IL
My Husband passed away on January 5th at 4:09 am in the morning because of the protocol with Remdesivir and the other medicines.
My Husband was 51 and a tower climber for over 20 years, non-smoker, no drugs or medicine ever. A 155-pound man who was hardly ever sick.
How It Began
“They told me to wait in the parking lot until they called me, which they never did.”
It all began on November 28th. I, Melissa Eldridge, was feeling bad with a headache and I could tell I had to use my inhaler more than usual. I decided to make an appointment to go through Walgreens drive-through for a rapid Covid test. My appointment was 3 days later. I believe it was on December 1st or 2nd. The test results came back positive. So I decided to go buy a few tests from Walmart to have my Husband John take one and one for my daughter Savannah who is 13. We took them home and did the tests. My Husband John’s came back Positive and my Daughter Savannah was negative. My husband wasn’t having any symptoms at this point, just me. My headache stayed for a week and after a week my husband John started feeling a headache coming on around the 9th.
On the 10th My Husband Had started getting Chills and feeling nauseous at his stomach as well. The headache stayed the whole time. So we gave him cold medicine and antibiotics (Amoxicillin and steroids that I had here that were extra). Later that day he started having a low-grade fever come on. Then I started giving him Aleve and he was taking daytime cold medicine with all of his vitamins Zinc, vitamin D3, elderberry, and vitamin C . We had both been taking these ever since we found out we had Covid. This went on for 3 days. By Sunday the 12th, he was having breathing problems and I took him to the local hospital ER at Anderson Hospital in Maryville. They would not let me go in with him at all. They told me to wait in the parking lot until they called me, which they never did. So I called into the ER and they let me know they were assessing him and would let me know when they were done with him. They would not let me know anything that was going on.
I called them back to let them know I put minutes on his phone to let him know to turn his phone off and back on to have service rendered. They did and when I called his phone he told me himself his oxygen was in the 60s then. He told me they started a PICC line in his arm for meds and fluids, but he did not know what medicine at that point. He said no one told him. They kept him in the ER for several hours and I continued to call him to check up on him. They told him they were admitting him because his oxygen was too low and they couldn’t get it back stable. So I waited for them to call me to let me know any kind of news about how my husband was doing. The hospital never called me. I Had proceeded to call them for checkups on my husband.
They Never Answered His Calls
They found him a bed around 9:30 pm. They took him to his room and they put a cannula on his nose to help him breathe better. By that night he was breathing a little better. By the next day, they said they had to put a BiPAP mask on him because his oxygen wasn’t staying stable. So I kept in contact with my husband John all day on Monday the 13th. By the night of Tuesday the 14th he was improving on his o2 levels and they were stable, but by night he got worse. They had to have him lay on his stomach so his 02 levels would stay stable. By Wednesday the 15th I thought he was doing better and I didn’t hear from him that morning and into almost the afternoon. He called me and couldn’t catch his breath and was choking. He told me to call the nurse's desk because he had been hitting the call button for over an hour and the nurse wouldn’t come in there. So I did and the nurse finally went in.
He had mentioned to me the nurses said they try to limit their entrance into the rooms as much as possible. That night I got a FaceTime call from him and he was saying his right leg
below the knee to his toes had gone numb and it was white as a sheet. The attending doctor was in the room as well when I was on FaceTime with my Husband. My husband told me that the doctor didn’t know what was causing his right leg from his knee to his toes to go numb. He said it was hurting him like “ if you were outside for a long time with your shoes on in the snow and how it feels when your feet are frozen.” He said it scared the doctor, which then scared my husband John as well! She mentioned to him about transferring him to Barnes Hospital in Saint Louis Missouri. But then she just talked to a physician on the phone and had a doctor come in and do a doppler on my husband's leg to make sure there were no blood clots. At that point, they said he had blood flow, but she couldn’t figure out why it was white as a sheet. And I kept asking for them to transfer him to Saint Louis Barnes Hospital. He had been in step down this whole time but the doctor at this time still would not get him transferred.
Kept Away
“They told me they were giving my husband Remdesivir.”
I continued to ask them to do a Covid test on him but they refused and told me they had already given him two and there was no need to give him another one because he was showing signs of Covid pneumonia. I had gotten a hold of Front Line Nurses associates and they were in contact with me through this whole ordeal. They told me what to ask the doctors and make sure to write down all of the medicine they were administering to my husband. The whole time his oxygen levels were too low and he wouldn’t register what was happening at the time. So I had asked them what medicines they were giving my husband and the dosages. They told me they were giving my husband Remdesivir. The first dose was administered on 12/12/2021 in the ER along with Dexamethasone, a steroid in his Cannula, a blood thinner, Tocilizumab, Baricitinib, Tylenol for fever, Albuterol, and Atrovent.
By Thursday my husband was not improving but in fact was worsening by the day. The Front Line Nurses told us to have them stop the Remdesivir asap because it will shut his kidneys down and cause renal failure and worsen his 02 levels and breathing. So he told them to stop the Remdesivir. However, the doctor herself told me that now was not the time to stop it when there is only one more dose left and she said he was improving (he was not in fact he was declining in health). That was Thursday the 16th. She begged us to let them give him the last dose and begged me to talk him into it. The doctor attending to my Husband stated that if there were going to be any side effects it would have shown up in the test results by then.
From the time he was admitted to that day on the 16th I was trying to get in to be by my husband's bedside so I knew what was going on with him because he wasn’t in his right state of mind to ask any questions. I mentioned giving my husband Ivermectin and they quickly got an attitude and unleashed their attitude on me. They stated they cannot get that medicine nor knew of anyone in our area that could. They also said if they could, they would not administer it in that hospital. From then on they were playing hardball with me. I kept asking for a new Covid test because when he was admitted they told me when I have a negative Covid test I could be by his side. Even after I had a negative Covid test and after I asked for them to give him Ivermectin, they made sure to keep me away from my husband's bedside. They kept telling me they can’t let me in to be with my husband because he had Covid, however, they would not give him another test to show me he was negative.
The Need to Transfer
“They still wouldn’t transfer him or let me in the hospital.”
It was Thursday the 16th and he continued to have leg circulation problems on his right leg from his knee to his toes from then on. They still wouldn’t transfer him or let me in the hospital. They kept calling it protocol for everything I asked for, they went by their protocol!
My husband's kidney function started to get worse by the 17th. My husband continued to have high heart rate levels and fevers and they did nothing for the high heart rate. My husband and I had to make the decision to stop having FaceTime calls because he thought it was causing his heart rate to be so high. We just texted from then on. His health was declining day by day and I had gotten the advice to go get power of attorney over my husband for health reasons for the hospital. So I did and he signed them. By Christmas Day he was trying to stay calm and we didn’t talk much that day, he said he was trying to stay relaxed and watch tv, that his oxygen was lowering and he wasn’t feeling good.
At 6:24 pm his phone was calling me and I thought well I get to talk to him on Christmas and when I answered it was the nurse frantic stating he needed to be out on a ventilator his oxygen was too low and he was on 100% this whole time. I told them to FaceTime me so I could see him and my husband did because she couldn’t figure it out. He said babe I can’t breathe as he held the BiPAP so tight to his face it was making indents in his cheeks and his face was red. I told him we had no other choice but to have him vented. We tried so hard to keep him from being ventilated because the odds are lower after you are vented, we thought. I told him I loved him and he said he loved me too and they took the phone away and that was the last time I got to talk to him or hear his voice again. They then ventilated my husband and took him to ICU. That night around 10:00 pm he went into cardiac arrest and they had to shock him back. The next day on the 26th he wasn't stable on his 02 levels. I called throughout the day to check on him and make sure he was ok and that they were taking good care of him because I didn’t know! I wasn’t able to be there by his bedside to make sure.
On the 26th I was asking if they were going to put a feeding tube in for him to eat and they said not right then, they wanted to wait and let his blood pressure stabilize. They had him on 4 different blood pressure medicines, they told me to keep his blood pressure level. The head ICU attending doctor said if they gave him a feeding tube it would push blood down to his stomach and not into his organs where he needed the blood. At that point he had no circulation in any of his limbs, they told me. He was in almost full renal failure and needed to have a crew machine for dialysis for his kidneys to function fully. My husband was functioning at 14% so they had to give him medicine to push the blood to his organs to keep them going. He was on life support. They said he was in critical condition. Again I continue to ask daily when they were giving him a feeding tube. They repeatedly told me they couldn’t at that time. I asked so much that they had the nurses just keep saying they will talk to the doctor but they never got back to me even when I asked the doctor.
Left Without Care
By the 27th they told me he wouldn’t sustain movement, when turning him his oxygen level would drop. When I talked to a nurse that night she told me his foot on his right leg was deadening and purple. I then asked if I could see it because no one mentioned this to me at all through the days he was there. She said, well he is wearing a sock over it and it’s keeping his leg stimulated. So they never let me see it. I never knew the severity of his condition. I continued to call nurses and ask what medicine they were giving my husband to make sure they weren't giving him something different than before. I wanted to know what they were giving him. By the 28th the ICU doctor called me and said to me I think you need to come and say your goodbyes to your husband. I said no I will not give up on my husband and you better not either. I told him to find him a bed and have him moved to a better, bigger hospital. That doctor looked into it and by the 29th they found a bed for my Husband at Barnes Jewish Hospital in Saint Louis Missouri.
They picked my husband up by ambulance and transferred him to Saint Louis Missouri Barnes Jewish. The Physician attending at Barnes Hospital assured me they will take good care of my husband and that he was in full renal failure at the point of admission to their hospital. They started him on the CRRC machine that night and continued the medicines and machine 24/7 to get his kidneys functioning. That Doctor told me I could stay with him through the day because at that point he was critical and they wanted family to be able to be with him. So the next morning on the 1st of January they called me early pleading for me to hurry up because his oxygen was so low they thought he would go into cardiac arrest. They called 3 times when I was trying to get there as fast as I could. When I got there his oxygen started to get better later in the day but not high enough for them. So they let his family come in to see him two at a time.
I Never Gave Up On Him
“They kept telling me and urging me to let my husband go.”
They continued their medicines for him and I continued to stay by his side and make sure he was taken care of. When I was there a nurse came in and showed me My Husbands bottom that I did not know about. He had a 3 -4 inch in diameter bed sore and blisters on his
bottom from the previous hospital and his right foot was completely dead from no circulation and traveling up his ankle. On his left two toes and his heel also were dead areas from no circulation. Daily the doctors there came at me like the devil trying to get me to let him go. I wouldn’t give up on my husband. He wouldn’t give up on me and I wasn’t going to give up on him. Day by day different doctors tried to tell me his time was up and I didn’t accept it. I still had faith God would heal his body. They continued their medicines as I asked and at one point he was down to one blood pressure medicine that was needed to keep him stable on his own. They had him heavily sedated on Methadone and pain meds. It was touch and go through to the 3rd of January and again they kept telling me and urging me to let my husband go. But what was not right was he was on one blood pressure medicine and on the 5th they said his chest scans were declining. When the last doctor approached me I asked about lung transplants and she told me they don’t do them in that hospital that other hospitals do, but not there. I asked her to check into it and no one ever did. No one ever gave him a Covid test that I continued to ask for even at that hospital. They said it would happen but never did. But on his death day January 5th I told them to keep giving him the medicine to keep him alive so he can heal and they said they were but when he passed he was only on 3 of the 4 blood pressure meds!
My Husband passed away on January 5th at 4:09 am in the morning. Because of the protocol with Remdesivir and the other medicines that are administered for their protocols they follow, the end result is killing thousands a day. My Husband was 51 and a tower climber for over 20 years, non-smoker, no drugs or medicine ever. A 155-pound man who was hardly ever sick. You do the math! Thanks for reading Our Story.
