Removal of communication devices
Call lights, glasses, cell phones or other communication devices removed from patients’ possession or placed out of their reach.
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.
“"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
“"It was just really kind of sick look on their faces. They removed the tubes. We weren't allowed in the room at that point. They were only gonna allow two of us in there.”
From the testimony of Lori McPherson
“"the nurse came in, and he goes, were you just taking pictures? And I go, yes. He goes, you need to delete them. And I said, no. He goes, no. You have to delete them. Did you take a video? And I go, I took a video and pictures. He goes, delete them. Delete them now.”
From the testimony of Barbara Lowney
“"All they did was wanna they had permission to to do that procedure, but yet they wouldn't send me pictures of her bedsore since you're not gonna let me see her. I had a right to see what my mom looked like. And they said we can't give you that information and send it to you because of HIPAA. Well, you're calling me over the phone. I'm not signing nothing for her to have a surgery. Y'all are just getting my verbal consent over the phone, and you're not even verifying that I'm the one who should even be having power of attorney or that I have the I'm the person making these decisions. They don't know.”
From the testimony of Linda Reeves
“"During that time, they locked down the hospital... I, was not offered the opportunity to see him, via, like, laptop.”
From the testimony of Gil Sifuentes
“"Are you sure you have them all?...If they're withholding anything you want to know.”
From the testimony of Brenda Kay Campbell
“"And I said to her, I go, I cannot believe that you would even bring that up right now. And then she says to me, I need you to leave. And I said, I am not leaving my mom... each one of my sisters, I had to dial the number, put the phone to my mom's here. She couldn't hear them... So each one of them, I had to dial the number, hold the phone, speaker to her ear, and you're hearing them saying, I love you, mom. You're a great mom... It's just so it's such a cold way.”
From the testimony of Phyllis Marek
“"So I asked the social worker if she would make sure that his hearing aid was in and his phone was turned on and turned up so he could hear it, which they never they apparently, they never did because he didn't have it. And, of course, he didn't have his hearing aid because the rehab had lost it. They miraculously found it the day after he came home, and I had reported them to the state.”
From the testimony of Stephen A Chambers
“"You can't you know, you have nobody that you can you you can't talk to anybody in your family, can't see, you know. Yep. They're locked in a room. And they took his hearing aids. He couldn't hear. He couldn't alone.”
From the testimony of Stephen A Chambers
“"the age of seventy eight, we fail, Got trapped in that bureaucracy. Then because of COVID, all that stuff was laid up in a rehab center for twenty one days. Ultimately, another ER for five days because of the rules that were surrounding all this. Never got his strength back because he was not allowed to even try. Couldn't talk to you or any of his family in the meantime because they took the phone away from him and lost his hearing aids, quote, unquote, lost his hearing aids. So you never really had contact with him again after, he went back that lap, anytime during the twenty one days of this rehab, stay, and then none after he went back to the emergency room and they,”
From the testimony of Stephen A Chambers
“"So he lay there and became weaker and weaker. Yeah. And they, that was COVID protocol. They said, if you're sent to a rehab from the ER, they're required COVID protocol said, you have to be quarantined for fourteen to twenty one days. ... No. He did not have his cell phone. He only had the phone in his room, and the phone was turned off. ... which they never they apparently, they never did because he didn't have it. And, of course, he didn't have his hearing aid because the rehab had lost it.”
From the testimony of Stephen A Chambers
“"Because if she did tell them that we were not gonna do no COVID shots, you know, they probably were like, then we don't want her talking to her family. You know? And so, yeah, she was there for a good month in the hospital. You know? And from that whole entire time, we were not allowed to see her at all...I firmly believe that they don't they make it hard to communicate and they don't let you see your loved ones because they're stripping hope away from you and they're stripping dignity away from you, pretty much treating you like an animal.”
From the testimony of Angie Murrieta
“"Very little. They had taken his phone and would set it across his bedside table, but his bedside table was pushed away from him.”
From the testimony of Johnny Glenn Moore, Jr.
“"she was taken to Tacoma General and placed in their COVID, I don't know if it was ICU or Ward or whatever, and couldn't have any communication in terms of physical communication with, any of her family.”
From the testimony of Barbara Daniel
“"I was allowed to go in twice a day. I could go in from twelve to two, and then I could go back at eight to ten. So I could stay those two hours, but I couldn't go in with him. I was standing outside of a window looking basically staring at him and watching his monitors and numbers, and I could talk to him, like, with a dry erase board, but he couldn't talk much or do anything because he couldn't take the BiPAP off his face.”
From the testimony of James D Thrift Jr (“Donny”)
“"I said, okay. The okay. I was able to FaceTime him on the seventeenth, and that was he was in, like, for a couple of days before I could FaceTime him.”
From the testimony of Charles Madeira
“"But I'm I'm really aggravated with the hospital because they called me and and informed me that my mother was going to be, incubated. And I'm like, woah, woah, woah, I said, before we even consider that next step, I want to have a conversation with my mother. You gotta understand up to that point throughout all this, I never was able even you know, we were denied request to see her or or consult with her other than, you know, her cell phone, which at one point got to a point to where it wasn't even being charged and we couldn't even contact her.”
From the testimony of Carol K Vaughan
“"Every time a nurse or doctor would talk to me, I would beg them to please let me see my husband. You know, they had housekeepers going in there, food people Mhmm. Every day, but I couldn't even go in for five minutes to hold his hand. So the only thing I could do was I would call his phone and hope to God that a nurse or a doctor would pick up his phone and just set it in front of him.”
From the testimony of Jeff Kozlovsky
“"Every single time, they would say, you should have gotten vaccinated. You wouldn't be here. Every nurse that came in there and which was two different ones, they wouldn't give him a, a charger cord.”
From the testimony of Geoffrey e Bruce
“"They gave him a room with no TV knowing that he was a big sports fan. His Atlanta Braves were going to the World Series. He couldn't watch any of the games. He didn't have any Internet on his phone.”
From the testimony of Geoffrey e Bruce
“"So, we asked for the ivermectin, the hydroxychloroquine, the budesonide given to him more often, and they wouldn't do it in the high dose vitamin c. And, it took three or four days before we finally had a nurse that told us that they had a video link in his room, and they could she could turn on the video link and I could we could talk to him.”
From the testimony of Jimmy Don Davis
“"I went to download her medical records. I couldn't access them. They took them off... when I said to that day, the meeting, I said to her, why did you take off her medical records? And she hesitated... all of a sudden, guess what? They were there... they mailed me over a thousand copies, but they were missing all of them from the majority of them from that visit.”
From the testimony of Genevieve Piliero
“"what bothered me was so many people have dealt with the phone being taken away, and they couldn't talk to their loved ones... this isn't right... it was a horrific experience. She didn't deserve to die alone. Had I known then what I know now, I would have never taken her to the hospital.”
From the testimony of Genevieve Piliero