Refusal to communicate
Doctors, nurses, and hospital administration refusing to communicate with family or advocates.
These testimony clips are drawn from interviews conducted by CHBMP with families and survivors. Each clip stands as evidence and remembrance. We share them to honor those who came forward, to seek accountability, and to ensure these experiences are never forgotten.
“"Well, we waited and waited in the waiting room, and they never came to get us.”
From the testimony of Sammie Hosch
“"Of course, during this time, because it was COVID and everything was kind of crazy at the hospital. They didn't allow any visitors. They didn't allow me in. Even though I had COVID too and recovered, and tested negative, and I begged them and said, I I I I'll sign a release so that I don't hold you responsible if I get sick again. Just please let me see my husband. Not only did they not let me see my husband, but their policy was that you couldn't even come inside the hospital.”
From the testimony of Ed Hodges
“"And the hospital said, no. So and also as it turned out, even though our GP was, had privileges at that hospital, she was not allowed to see him either. Only the infectious disease doctor, was allowed to see him.”
From the testimony of Ed Hodges
“"And I just felt like I was lucky that I had a brother who's a doctor and that I had more information. I felt so bad for all the other patients and their families because no one was telling them anything. No one was explaining anything to them.”
From the testimony of Ed Hodges
“"And, and he refused to come down and see me and said he would call me later, and and he did call me later. And I found out, nurses told me that, the only time any doctors ever saw the patients was during those rounds in the morning. And there would be several doctors who went on rounds at the same time, and they literally spent a minute, maybe two minutes in each patient's room.”
From the testimony of Ed Hodges
“"So we requested to speak to the administrator of the hospital, Chris York, who was the president of Baylor. [...] I don’t care who your husband was. I'm not gonna let you see him. [...] I think it's a crime you're not letting me see my dad.”
From the testimony of Constantine Kotsanis
“"So Baylor's trying to cover this. This. Baylor's trying to cover this up. They're still up to the same shenanigans.”
From the testimony of Constantine Kotsanis
“"And I said, oh my, what's what's going on? What's wrong? And she said, I found I found him unresponsive. And I just started screaming. I don't understand. How can you find somebody unresponsive when they're in the hospital in a hospital bed on the CPU unit, how do you find someone unresponsive? And she kept saying, I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. And then she hung up. She wouldn't give me her name. I asked her name. I I was asking all these questions.”
From the testimony of Michael E. Pilgrim
“"No one said anything to me. And then in here, he says that he called the one time he called that he talked to me and said that my husband was critical. He never did. Not at any point in time did he ever say that. He said he was getting better, that they were watching him closely, everything was fine. And then that same doctor is the one that called me after he died to say he doesn't know what happened because he wasn't even there.”
From the testimony of Michael E. Pilgrim
“"And when they told me he died, I immediately got on his chart because I've been following his chart, and they immediately closed out his chart. I can no longer see anything after my son called to tell me he died. I called back. I said I can't see his chart. No one would talk to me.”
From the testimony of Michael E. Pilgrim
“"And I said, oh my, what's what's going on? What's wrong? And she said, I found I found him unresponsive. And I just started screaming. I don't understand. How can you find somebody unresponsive when they're in the hospital in a hospital bed on the CPU unit, how do you find someone unresponsive? And she kept saying, I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. And then she hung up. She wouldn't give me her name. I asked her name. I I was asking all these questions.”
From the testimony of Michael E. Pilgrim
“"But then, our communication, especially with this one nurse, started to fail. If you know, I think she began to sense that we knew more, than than what she wanted us to know. And so especially when we talked to a doctor and we questioned him more about the remdesivir and the COVID cock cocktail and how we would like to see some changes, and he was just very adamant he wasn't going to, to do that.”
From the testimony of Steven Cantara
“"We did not know that until probably, maybe four days before they let him out of COVID ICU. And even when he was in the regular ICU, they had his arms tied. Of course, he was coming down off of all the the medications, but, yeah, that they just were not letting us know exactly what was what was going on. The doctor said we would call, and we would wait all day for a call and then never receive a call.”
From the testimony of Steven Cantara
“"And just because I was saying things on the phone to the doctors didn't mean that they were gonna listen to me because they did not at all ever.”
From the testimony of James Bradford McDonald
“"I couldn't even tell you who his doctor was. I I to this day, I don't know who his attending doctor was. People would come in, and they were literally in the room for seconds. They'd listen to his heart and walk right back out. And nobody would be I when I got his death certificate, he said COVID nineteen pneumonia. I'm like, I didn't even know he had pneumonia. Like, nobody even told me he had pneumonia.”
From the testimony of Reynolds W. Grant, Jr.
“"And I did put in a VAERS report for my mother... And never got any reply back from the CDC.”
From the testimony of Ann Hogan
“"They were supposed to tell me. They I was supposed to be able to approve, because I was his his medical add get as best as I could be. They wouldn't even let me do that.”
From the testimony of Phillip Thomas
“"I asked them to put him on ivermectin and hydrochloric... Hydroxychloroquine. And they said no... And so I was calling them every day trying to get somebody to do the right thing, and I even invoked his right to try... they wouldn't let me see him. They kept... dangling a carrot in front of me.”
From the testimony of Phillip Thomas
“"They said it all has to be on FaceTime in the ICU. And so I could barely hear him because it was really, really loud. In this this unit. I don't know what they were doing, but it was really loud. And I could hear them yelling at him because they're they're they're wanting him to...”
From the testimony of Phillip Thomas
“"I had no more I had no further, conversation with him. I couldn't talk to him or anything. And I asked them if I could please just, you know, go and lay hands on him and tell him I was there and let him know that I was here fighting with him, and they said absolutely not.”
From the testimony of Gerald Lee Shirar
“"They had never approached me. They had never told me straight up. They had never acknowledged it with any here's some paperwork that you need to sign now that we have his code changed.”
From the testimony of Jeffrey D. Overmyer
“"I just looked at her and I'm like, you had this conversation with my husband without me in the room about telling me first.”
From the testimony of John Russel Cole
“"One would give him something to do, like a breathing exercise, and the next day, another one would come in and take it away...the nurses were like, I'm sorry. You know, we don't have one of the doctors isn't here right now, and I really can't discuss the patient with you.”
From the testimony of John Russel Cole
“"I find it really funny that, like, I was watching the COVID Select hearing a week or so ago, and and they were saying how they, you know, follow-up on VAERS reports and stuff. No. They do not. No. No. They do not. Nobody has ever contacted me about a VAERS report or any of the the contact that I am trying to make, you know, to the government.”
From the testimony of Erica Jo