Fayetteville, GA

Jason Ross, 36 year young, father of three, and the victim of murder at Piedmont Fayette Hospital.

Covid

“All that he needed was an antibiotic, a steroid, and an Albuterol nebulizer breathing treatment.”

My name is Briana MacDowell Ross, wife of Jason Ross, 36 years young, father of three, and the victim of murder at Piedmont Fayette Hospital. My three kids, my mother, and I had some type of cold or flu, all overlapping, but on different schedules, along with my husband. He was the third or fourth in the family to get sick, and he was displaying similar symptoms to mine about one week after me. Everyone in the family got better from the American Frontline Doctor’s Protocol. However, I was still exhausted from being sick myself, as well as taking care of the family members. Jason started the protocol, but he went back to work after two days. He had to wear a mask at work. He began having shortness of breath – it had appeared, and it had gotten worse – just in those couple of days at work. I made him stay home the next two days and began the protocol again. His shortness of breath worsened, so, we decided to seek professional help.

Before Covid happened, whenever I went to the hospital with shortness of breath from an upper respiratory infection or pneumonia, I was given an antibiotic and an oral steroid, along with albuterol nebulizer treatments. Therefore, I already knew, that in this critical state of breathing distress, all that he needed was an antibiotic, a steroid, and an albuterol nebulizer breathing treatment. I used to be hospitalized two times per year for asthma attacks and upper respiratory infections. We had a nebulizer. We did not have antibiotics or steroids.

Ruling Out Covid

The following are the order of events on the day we went to the hospital: We went to Walgreen’s Walk-in Clinic first, he walked all the way back there struggling to breathe. The doctor or RN on duty said, “He can’t be seen here, he needs to go to urgent care.” Note: it is a Piedmont Clinic, which is the hospital he passed away in. They knew he was struggling to breathe, and they never offered a wheelchair.

Next, we went to an Urgent Care Clinic, they could not see him because of his insurance. I offered to pay out of pocket, and they said, “We still cannot see him because it’s a strict policy.” The policy: cannot see anyone under VA insurance, even if they want to pay for it without using the insurance.

I proceeded to the hospital ER. Piedmont, Fayette Hospital. I thought they would provide oxygen. They did provide oxygen but then they said, sign in for consent for treatment. I said, “before I sign that, I need to clarify what that means – He would not be put on a ventilator, No Remdesivir, No Downers.

– if I can guarantee that, I will sign this.” She looked at me like I was crazy and just stared at me. I repeated it. Another nurse or medical staff member came up and said, “oh no, honey, this is just for the initial exam.” I was almost in tears during triage, and I said the same thing- “No ventilator and no Remdesivir.” Then, another nurse or medical assistant looked at me and said, “Oh honey, he’s not going to need that, he just needed a little oxygen, see.” She pointed to the screen and his oxygen number was back in the high 90’s. “But I do think he has Covid though, so he will be called rule out Covid until we test him, and no one will be allowed back with him until we rule out Covid.”

Withheld Information

“ma’am, your husband is not coming home tonight.”

I walked outside and had to arrange to pick up the kids at school. Jason called me and said, “I’m in the lobby.” I went back inside for approximately 30 minutes and sat with him until they called him in the back again. They told me that he was Covid Positive, and no one can go back there with him. I said, “I had Covid too, I would like to go back”, and they required a positive test result, from when I was sick (one week earlier), to let me do that. It was “hospital protocol.” I tried to stay on the phone with him the rest of that day and night. I thought I was going to be able to pick him up that night. When I called, the nurse said, “ma’am, your husband is not coming home tonight.” I said, “I need my husband back home tonight.” Every person I talked to, I again repeated, “No ventilator, no Remdesivir.”

They exaggerated how sick he was, and they used over-the-top theatrics on how dangerous it was and how they had to get him on a ventilator. Again, I had it, my mother had it, my kids had it, many friends had it, and everyone recovered at home. I knew the only people, who “died of Covid”, only died in hospitals. I knew all this, and I just thought, “it will be different with us because he has a well-informed and educated patient advocate (me). If they go against our wishes, we will sign an AMA and get him discharged.” Seems simple, right? I was so wrong.

I first asked to have access to his chart, on the Patient Portal. They told me that was only for patients in the Piedmont system, but not critical care or ICU patients. So then, I asked every single person to read all the notes to me and get every bit of information that I could, via phone calls.

Abuse and Neglect

“I have text messages from him about being so thirsty and hungry, and they were giving him nothing.”

On day 2, I had to call them, no one called me, I wanted to know everything about his tests. They said absolutely nothing about a ventilator or Remdesivir. They put him on c-pap and then a bi-pap saying his breathing was getting worse. He was miserable. I have text messages from him about being so thirsty and hungry, and they were giving him nothing. He said, “I keep asking the nurse to bring me water and she doesn’t bring anything.” When I asked them about his claims, they said they did not want him to aspirate. They were giving him IV fluids and I thought, ‘at least he is not dehydrated.’

They told me his oxygen had dropped earlier in the day. The nurses had given him too many fluids, so they started him on Lasik, a diuretic, and when they did the x-ray, all the fluids were gone. So, earlier in the day, his oxygen went down because of them giving him too many fluids. That nurse confirmed that information, but when I brought it up later they told me that was not correct. I was constantly given conflicting information from the revolving door of doctors and nurses on every shift.

They removed the nasal cannula, his current oxygen was 90-91%. He got up to use the bathroom and his oxygen dropped so they put him on a bi-pap machine. They told me they were now giving him only fluids thru mouth, no IV fluids. However, numerous text messages told me that they were NOT giving him fluids by mouth either.

Remdesivir Without Consent

On day 3 I got the list of drugs that day that he was on. I thought that one of them was a type of steroid, but it was Remdesivir. The nurse said the drug incorrectly, so I didn’t realize they started Remdesivir, the third day that he was there. The doctors phoned me at 6 am. Screaming into the phone, “we have to put him on a ventilator right now!!!! It’s urgent or he’s going to die!”

I told Jason this is NOT what we’re doing, and we must get you discharged. I asked about Ivermectin, Hydroxychloroquine, Monoclonal antibodies when I talked to the pulmonologist. Dr. Gattan. He went through one by one explaining why they wouldn’t work. He rushed so fast; I could not write it all down.

The doctor was not using any peer-reviewed studies, they were all anecdotal cases from the hospital and elsewhere. He told me a story from “down in his country” and his opinion of Ivermectin. He said, “they use it, but it does not work.” None of the explanations had anything to do with Jason’s specific situation. I asked, “Doesn’t the hospital get more money for covid deaths?” He said, “We are not killing people for money”, and then he repeated, “we are not in the business of killing people.” Dr. Gattan said, “I will give you a few more days to think about it but you don’t want to wait too long.”

At 3:40 pm that day, he was at 100% oxygen. Pulse in the 70’s and breaths per minute in the 20s and 30s, all normal. Nadine, the charge nurse, said, “If you come up here, you can see him today.” I did not ask any questions. I went up there. It was our 1-year Wedding Anniversary, the next day. When I got there, it was all theatrics. Nadine had changed demeanor and said, “if you try to go inside that door, I will call security.” I said, “I’m not going to do that. That is not why I am here.” She never stopped staring at me the entire time I was there. When I was talking to any of the therapists she just glared.

He was in a position he could not breathe, so I asked them to adjust the bed for him. I have a friend who is a respiratory therapist, and she told me how important “proning” is. This position is on one’s stomach. They had his bed with the head lifted. He was on his stomach! When I asked the respiratory therapist about the position, she said, “[the position] really doesn’t matter.” I remember literally cringing.

Dr. Gattan came over, and I said, “his vitals look great.” He said, “well, ummm, not really good… breaths per minute were in the 40’s”, but I said, “they have been in the 20’s and 30’s. I watched things happen that would make his vitals go up- like lying on his back, the football game on in his room, getting poked and punctured by all the medical team, etc.” I asked if they were giving him vitamins, and what other medications. Dr. Gattan said, “he asked me not to talk to you about this.” I said, “it’s not Remdesivir is it?” He said, “I’m not supposed to tell yoooou,” almost singing it, as he laughed.

He said, “I’ve got the ventilator ready to go right here”, and he pointed to it against the wall. I said, “that is a hard NO”. He said, “he is only waiting because it is your wishes”, and he took his gloves off- balled them up, threw them aggressively across the hall, and they hit the wall with a hard smack, before falling into the garbage can. He then walked away.

That’s when Nadine, the charge nurse said, “it’s time for you to leave now.”

That evening they put him back on a nasal cannula and he ate a whole meal and drank for the first time. They put him back on the BiPAP “just to sleep.”

Held Hostage

“if you do that, he will die.”

On day 4 they kept him on the BiPAP and he sent me a picture of his vitals and they were perfect. In his medical record – on this same day – they added two NEW diagnoses: “anxiety” and “hypernatremia.” They did not tell me either of these. I started looking for medical supplies, private medical transport, and in-home nurses so that we could sign an AMA and discharge him.

Every single doctor and nurse at the hospital said, “if you do that, he will die.” I was unpersuaded. I called hospital administration and they took the AMA up to Jason and that’s when the doctors and nurses worked on him psychologically. After I would talk to him, they would talk to him and counteract everything I talked about with them and him. He was by himself, there is no telling what they said to him.

His phone searches contain “being held without food and water” “leaving a hospital”, and “in-home oxygen tanks”. The hospital team then started him on Xanax, and he told me, “Don’t worry about it Bri, we’ll deal with it tomorrow. I will just sleep here tonight.” In the meantime, I was continuing my research on the best way to get him out, set up at home, etc.

Everything Will Be Fine

“I asked them, explain how this treatment is healing?” .”

On day 5 The pulmonologist, Dr. Arthur, called me at 6 am again, in a panic, saying “he needs to be intubated now!” I said, “NO.”

When telling them we are utilizing the AMA, Sara, the nurse, got on the phone and said, “we will have to turn the oxygen and machines off, then he will have to dress himself, walk down the long halls to the elevator, and down to the first floor. He would have to do it all himself. No one would be allowed to help him.” I said, “you can’t even put him in a wheelchair?” She said, “NO.” She also said that she “would not be able to sleep at night if he left and died. He WILL die if you do this.”

I then talked to the hospital’s patient advocate, and I then called the other patient advocates, but no one could help. I called lawyers and did more research. At that exact date, all over the country, lawsuits were in process to get ivermectin and monoclonal antibodies treatment for loved ones in hospitals. However, hospitals are very well covered by new laws set in place from February 2020. They wore him down fear-mongering and being alone and no one to advocate with him. He was exhausted, and he just wanted to “get better and go home.” Jason said, “Let’s just get this over with so I can come home, and we can be a family again.” I will never forget those words.

I asked them, “explain how this treatment is healing?” They explained to me “it would rest his body so his lungs could heal. His body is extremely tired, and there are hundreds of tiny muscles around lungs that get really worn down.” He had already agreed anyway, and that’s why they were nothing. I talked to Dr. Shaw that day, her title is “Support Medicine”, which I found out later, is a palliative care doctor. I thought she was literally the support for our family and for him in the hospital. We talked for an hour, and she assured me that everything was going to be fine.

Paralyzed

Day 6-9 they began the paralytic, sedated him, and moved him to ICU. I had to put it in God’s hands at that point. I never stopped praying, except to do research on things that the nurses and doctors were telling me. Everything was good for three days and he was coming off the paralytic right on schedule. They were testing him to get off the ventilator. However, everything changed on Day 9. They called me to do a biopsy because of “vaguling”, a coughing spell cut off his circulation for a minute and his heart rate dropped. They started him on an antibiotic- “the strongest antibiotic there is”- until they get lab results back. It could be a secondary infection.

On day 10 he tested positive for pseudomonas, a “hospital-acquired bacterial pneumonia”.

He now has an infection disease team monitoring him 24/7, supposedly. They then started him on a specific antibiotic that has a 100% success rate in treating pseudomonas.

On day 11 the PA, Nick, said they are keeping him off the paralytic and trying to get his percentage of oxygen lowered. He considered this minor setback and he is doing really well. He went so far to tell me, “I talk to a lot of people with really bad news, I am not sugar coating this at all. Everything looks really good for Jason.” Then, Nick specifically said, “if we were having to re-paralyze him, and turn his oxygen up to 100%, that would be a bad situation.” Two days later that happened.

On day 12 the Nurses said they talked to him, he responded, squeezed their hands, he was coming off the sedatives with no issues. On day 13 he was stable all day, following commands, a little awake. Our children and I were able to talk to him for a few minutes. Then everything changed. The nurse called to say, “he was breathing over his vent.” They wanted to sedate him. The nurse said his oxygen had dropped into the 60’s and was slowly coming back up and it was all over the map.

Dr. Etetwe called and said his x-ray is white, a lot of new inflammation in the past 24-48 hours, they did another tracheoscopy and found a gram-negative bacterium they were testing again. It was either pseudomonas or something else. So, he said, we are going to up the sedation, paralyze him again, and start all over. I asked if there was anything else we could do to get him off the ventilator. I started asking again about Ivermectin and Hydroxychloroquine, and he said, “that hasn’t been approved.” I said, “Ivermectin was approved in the 1970’s by the FDA.” He shrieked, “for Covid!?!” “Obviously not in the 1970’s”, I said, “since Covid is a new virus.” That was the end of that conversation because I think he changed the subject. I was incredibly exhausted and felt so helpless.

Later, the night nurse gave me incorrect information, and when I questioned a few things, she said that she “was looking at the wrong chart.”

Care Not Given

“I will let you know if it’s time to worry.”

On day 14 I called Dr. Shaw to get him transferred and talked about my concerns with Dr. Etewe. She went over all the medications. I kept asking about proning, she didn’t know the answers to those questions, but she said that she would “find out”. Prone position was the only thing that worked great for him. I said, “his O2 sat, his oxygenation and all his vitals were great, they only had to wean him from high oxygen to get off vent.” She said, oh, several weeks on the vent is normal for his severity of damage. She said, “the secondary infection caused this, he was progressing great, and now the antibiotic is working. So now it’s back to fighting the Covid but he’s back on track.” She even said, “do not worry, I am not worried, and cautiously optimistic. I will let you know if it’s time to worry.”

I spoke with the nurse Jeanie after that. I asked if he could be prone more, Jeanie said, “that’s such a great point, no one asks that.” Then he developed a fever. A floater nurse that I could barely understand, called me at 3:30 am and said it was a code blue. They said, “it was his last intervention.” His blood oxygen dropped into the 70’s and he was on his back. I said, “it’s been 10 hours he needs to go on his stomach!” I asked if I needed to go up there and she said, “I’ll call you back if you need to come up.” They never called back. I found out the next day that once they flipped him on his stomach, his Oxygen saturation went to the 80’s and then high 80’s.

Life Saving Measures Disregarded

“He specifically said Ivermectin, Iodine, Hydroxychloroquine are fake medicine, misinformation.”

Dr. Shaw called first thing the next morning, and said, “Now I’m starting to worry.” She told me to come up there. I found a patient advocate, Patrik Hutzel, who helped me ask the right questions. He asked the nurse if it was single organ failure or multiple. She said single. He told me about the ECMO machine. Dr. Shaw said they had been trying to get him an ECMO machine since the first day he got there. They said that now, he was not a candidate, because of the pseudomonas. On day 16 I asked about an Ace-2 inhibitor, and he was already on a medication that Dr. P said, “is the same thing”. I also asked again about the plasma treatment, and Dr. Shaw said, “We tried that in the beginning [of Covid pandemic], and it was hurting people.”

Dr. Shaw had me come upstairs and she took me in a conference room with Dr. P, the current pulmonologist. I asked again about Ivermectin. She said, “it caused major kidney damage and killed a patient.” I said, “Wow! What study was that?! I would like to look it up for myself since I had never read anything like that.” Dr. Shaw looked at the ground, and mumbled very quickly, “Oh, no study, just a couple of anecdotal cases here at the hospital.”

Next, Dr. P got frustrated at my advocate on the phone during this. I said, can we please bump up the Vitamin C, Zinc, Vitamin D. He agreed to up the Vitamin C, I asked for 10,000 IU and he said 5000 was the most he could do. He specifically said Ivermectin, Iodine, Hydroxychloroquine are fake medicine, misinformation. He said then, “if you find studies, send them to me.” I sent the studies to him through Dr. Shaw. He said they are monitoring him and taking care of him, and that all of his medical team are highly invested in his care – “I have nurses crying over him daily.” He then gave me a big hug and assured me they were trying different things to help. Dr. Jason’s sister came up, and they went back to the conference room with both doctors, and they showed us the x-rays, and the same information. His oxygen dropped into the 70’s again and they did another procedure. His oxygen was back up to the 90’s and stayed there thru the next day.

Taken Too Soon

“He called Jason’s time of death at that point. I will never forget the “twenty-three, twenty-five”. It was announced in military time..”

On day 17, because he was considered “stable”, which meant, I could not go. He had to be dying for me to go there, since the hospital protocol’s 20-day quarantine that he was still under.

On day 18 Dr. P called and said I should go up there. They wanted me to sign a DNR and I said NO. It was decided if his respiratory went down to 65 and stayed there, that is when they would flip him on his back. That never happened. He had a rash on his back, and he was all swollen up. His eyes were swollen, hands, feet. He had nothing in his urinary output bag. My advocate questioned the nurse, and she was very defensive. The oxygen monitor wasn’t working correctly, and it kept going down and up. I asked for a new machine, and I pointed out that the machine was faulty and glitching. The nurse made up excuses, but “if it made [me] feel better, [she] would change it”. I have no idea how many days it was like that, not working.

On day 19 Dr. Shaw called me and said I should probably go back there right away. She said his potassium level was high and she was getting the kidney doctor on it. The kidney doctor called me and explained the different dialysis procedures. He asked if I “would agree to the procedure, to save your husband’s life today?” I said, “of course.” He said he was going to begin in 15 minutes, and I said, “I’m on my way up there.” The same nurse had NOT replaced his oxygen monitor. Then she used the excuse, it’s not reading because “his fingers are too swollen.”

When I was alone with Jason and I was talking to him, this new medical person, male, came in, sat down, and he introduced himself as Dr. Woolsey. He said the kidney dialysis didn’t happen because his blood pressure went down too low. He said they had him on three blood pressure medications to raise his blood pressure and that’s why they could not proceed with dialysis. “It is too dangerous.” He went on and on about his heart rate, and I said, “wait, don’t we want it to go down?” He looked at me with an intense stare, and without blinking, he said, “Ms. Ross, it’s not looking good for your husband. I’ve been monitoring him since he came in, and he had sepsis when he checked in.” I said, “Huh?” There was never any mention of sepsis to me from anyone I had talked to this whole time.

I questioned him numerous times about this. He assured me that there indeed was.

I kept pushing for the dialysis if his blood pressure got high enough. I just talked to the kidney doctor; he didn’t mention anything like that to me. They kept armoring up to respond to me. Very defensive.

Another nurse came in, Trey. He told me my husband would not survive the night amongst other things. We were pushing for a transfer to Emory for a plasma treatment that would clean his blood vessels. Dr. Shaw told me that if another hospital would take him, she could transfer him. Emory agreed to take him, the ICU team had to call them. Then Trey told us that the dialysis CRET does the same thing as the plasma treatment that we were going to transfer him for! Throughout all these developments my friend tried to get some humanity out of Nurse Trey. She asked him, “why would you be talking her out of doing this possibly life-changing treatment? Why are you working so hard to talk her out of that?” He said, “that’s not me, it’s the kidney doctor.” He said, “I’ll talk to him again.”

My pastor came in for Jason and me, and he prayed over the nurse also. We were all gowned up. As we were leaving and everyone was taking off gear, Trey came up in the hallway, and he said, I talked to the kidney doctor, and we can do the procedure. However, I must give you a disclaimer, I have to flip to his back to do this, and it will take about 10 seconds, and we could flip him right back. I agreed. He explained exactly what was going to happen. If anything goes wrong, he has a team of 15 people to back him up and ready to go to bring him back. He said I do this all the time. I decided to leave the room for this and sat outside praying. He said come back in 15 minutes, I’ll be done.

During the 15 minutes, he was moving from room to room, creeping around. My friend noticed him, and he looked like he was caught doing something he should not be, or not doing what he should be doing… Around 30 minutes later, this woman started talking to us about how nice the hospital was, “some people call it a hotel!” she chuckled, as I wondered why she was talking to me.

Trey came back out and said, “I need to talk to you.” That woman leaned in instead of walking away. He said they flipped him over and said his heart stopped. “My team is doing CPR but I think you should come back here.” Watching this through the window is bad enough, but they asked me to go into the room with them. Against my better judgment, I went in. It was traumatizing- he was naked, flat on his back, getting bounced around and shaken up from the compressions. It was the most traumatizing thing; I would never wish on anyone. Even the trauma and critical care team looked traumatized!

Dr. Woolsey’s PA was there, and she talked very fast. I only heard her say something about why they could not do the electrical shock to start his heart and why they stop compressions after 15 minutes. I could hardly hear her at all because all the while, Trey was standing above us, like a concert conductor on a platform, yelling out commands for them like a military sergeant. Then, he, finally asked, “does anyone else want to try?” No one responded from the team, he called Jason’s time of death at that point. I will never forget the “twenty-three, twenty-five”. It was announced in military time.

Death By Negligence and Abuse

“They gave my healthy husband, who had pneumonia, end of life, hospice care!!!”

That strange woman stared at me while I prayed and sat with him for a while. She was head of some department but gave me the number to the morgue to call the next day.

I am still in disbelief. My husband checked into Piedmont Fayette Hospital on October 7, 2021, and he was discharged to the morgue on October 25, 2021.

I immediately went for his medical records and studied them. They are over 1400 pages long, so I am still studying them. They use FENTANYL for one of the “sedation” medications! Fentanyl!!! This hospital’s treatment for Covid is equivalent to a Cancer patients’ end-of-life care. I know, because my Godmother passed away two months later, and she had stage 4 pancreatic cancer. They gave my healthy husband, who had pneumonia, end of life, hospice care!!!

I also paid $5,000 for a private autopsy. The coroner did not even know what Remdesivir was when I asked him after the autopsy. The autopsy did prove that Jason was perfectly healthy other than the lungs (regular pneumonia does what his lungs did), blood vessels (medications), and eventual kidney shut down (from the Remdesivir and/or Fentanyl).

He had gained 65 pounds from the “edema” or fluids trapped in his body from kidney failure. Neither the hospital nor any of the doctors, nurses, medical staff, informed me of his actual diagnoses on the day that he was checked into the hospital. In addition to the “viral pneumonia due to Covid 19” diagnoses that I was aware of, they diagnosed him with the following: acute respiratory failure due to covid-19, Sepsis due to covid-19, Hypoxic AND hypercapnic respiratory failure, and acute kidney injury. I found all this information on his hospital records, after his passing.

All Jason needed was an antibiotic, a steroid, vitamins, along with albuterol nebulizer treatments. That was all he needed. He should still be here. Jason’s cause of death says five different causes that all lead back to the “number one” cause of death, “Covid 19”. Yet, I saw what they did. No one dies of Covid 19 in hospitals. They all die of gross negligence and abuse. My goal is to now make sure that no one else goes through what my family has gone through! Hear my story. Remember our names. Remember the Ross’.