Nicholas' Story

East Providence, Rhode Island

My mom passed away at The Miriam Hospital on 2/5/22 and it was not due to Covid. It was due to this hospital's negligence.

How many other patients do they do this to?

Covid

“She was unvaccinated due to a medical reason and was waiting to get the vaccine.”

My mom passed away at The Miriam Hospital on 2/5/22 and it was not due to Covid. It was due to this hospital's negligence. She passed away from sepsis. She went into the hospital with Covid on 12/19/2021. She was unvaccinated due to a medical reason and was waiting to get the vaccine. She was placed with 6-30L of oxygen for about a week, she was given dexamethasone and Remdesivir for 7-10 days. But it wasn’t helping her, she then was requiring 30-60L of oxygen, so they were supposed to give her Tcilizumab since she had rapidly increasing needs but they stated she wasn’t a candidate. Not sure what makes someone a candidate or not for a medication when they are showing signs of needing it. According to the National Institute of Health’s therapeutic management of hospitalized adults with COVID-19 the medications that were supposed to be used were not followed. Was she not a candidate because she’s not vaccinated?

Prior to being put on the vent, Dr. Andrew Levinson spoke to my mom when she was up and alert but “confused” according to Andrew Levinson, about her condition and how she would need to be put on a ventilator. He stated to her if she was put on one she would die, upsetting my mother. He kept pushing and pushing for her to be put on one and she kept refusing. They called us stating she wanted to be put on a vent. Prior to that, according to their medical notes they were trying to have my mom sign a DNR, she refused. Dr. Andrew Levinson stated CPR might not be an option for her in his notes but that was never addressed to the family and we did not agree.

She’s Going to Die

My mother was confused because other doctors were telling her she was doing very well in the specialized care unit. They portrayed her to be sicker than she was, insisting she would need to be intubated and put on a ventilator for a fighting chance. In her first week on the ventilator she was only on a peep of 6-10, getting down to a vent setting of 50% on her first day on vent. She also cleared up two pneumothoraxes, the bacterial and viral infection. The second week intubated she had a tracheotomy so she could recover long term and we were told by Dr. Giovanna DeLuca that my mom was lucky to be in the position to get that done because it’s very rare patients are even stable enough to get that done.

Now we are told she basically is going to die on the vent. All her other organs are still functioning, they are not giving us a percentage of how damaged her lungs are. They messed up with her trach, on 1/16/22 overnight when they were changing the neck collar they covered her trach hole and made it dislodge out of her neck, causing her to go very low in oxygen. The reason for that was the hole they made was too big for the trach tube. The next morning they flipped her too soon causing her to go into cardiac arrest, they were able to perform CPR and bring her back.

Doing Damage

“They had her on nothing to stop damage to her lungs from progressing.”

On 1/18/22, her trach hole had to be covered with gauze and Tegaderm over it. However, it was soaked and soiled underneath the Tegaderm with phlegm/mucus leaking out of the side onto her patient gown. On 1/23/22 at 6:30 pm, the Tegaderm was not sealed on her neck causing her oxygen to be released from her trach hole. The same thing happened with her gauze pads being soaked and soiled with phlegm/mucus again. (We do have photos) We asked for them to try an anti-inflammatory or even corticosteroid prednisone that is proven to help keep airways open and reduce inflammation, they will not. They were telling my family it will not benefit her even though her blood work shows inflammation in her body.

They had her on nothing to stop damage to her lungs from progressing. She no longer had the Covid infection. We have had 5 outside people with the credentials of doctors, nurse practitioners, respiratory therapists stating how my mom needs to be put on a corticosteroid like prednisone and they are refusing that treatment to her. They have given her nothing for her inflammation in the lungs or even treatment for her Acute hypoxemic respiratory failure. They continue to say they aren’t 100% sure it’s scarring because they haven’t done a biopsy but insist it’s scarring even though her lab works show a high inflammation mark. I heard two doctors discussing in a hallway one recommended a steroid for another patient that was a male, and the other doctor said he was too far gone and it wouldn’t help him. How many other patients do they do this to?

Medical Tyranny

“Once speaking to Dr. Andrew Levinson, his whole attitude changed.”

During the week of 1/24/22-1/30/22, Dr. Gerardo Carino stated that it can take 6 months or more for the lungs to fully recover. Dr. Carino was pleased with the improvements my mom was making with trying to move a little more and more. Once speaking to Dr. Andrew Levinson, his whole attitude changed. I have put in a complaint with Risk at the hospital, twice. On 1/24/22, the hospital had to place a chest tube on my mom and she responded very well to it, bringing her SpO2 up to 97-100. Unfortunately, they didn’t clamp it for 24 hours before removing it as they should have. Therefore my mother needed to get another chest tube put back in. Her x-ray showed that it was retracted and I spoke to the nurse Anita, she stated the chest tube was still in a proper position which was false because the very next day they found that the chest tube was kinked. Needing to replace the chest tube with a bigger one on 1/30/22.

Covid Didn’t Kill Her, They Did

We spoke to Dr. Daniel Dustin on 1/30/22, he had put my mom on antibiotics which were gonna be for 5-7 days due to radiographs showing infection, her presenting a fever, and her WBC high. He was informed about Lupus being in the family, and that my mom could have an underlying autoimmune disease. He was very understanding and took that into

consideration whereas all the other physicians have not. He was going to reassess after the antibiotic treatment was completed to see if it was indeed an autoimmune response and start her on prednisone. However, Dr. Andrew Levinson got in at 7 am on 1/31/22, shutting that all down, he stated there’s no need for that. An anti-inflammatory or steroid was off the table completely. Dr. Levinson was not checking her SED rate or CRP levels even though she got blood work every other day. He stated Dr. Dustin is just a fellow and confirmed he was the head ICU doctor and that he calls the shots. So, I’m not sure how one doctor can have a plan of treatment and another just stop the plan of treatment. My mom went into sepsis shock 3 times during this hospital stay, one time we weren’t even informed. The other two times, they stopped her antibiotic treatment way too soon. She got sepsis for the 3rd time which is what killed my mother. Not Covid.