I want people to speak up about their personal examples of how helpless they have felt during COVID-19 when their loved ones have had to go or been in the hospital. As of right now if you are a legal adult, you are all alone with nobody to speak up for you when you are hospitalized! NOBODY is allowed in the hospital unless you are the patient. Think about how scary and hopeless you would feel to not have your spouse by your side or visa versa. Not only would this be scary, it could be the difference between life or death. 

  Advocacy is a human right and I feel like it has been the rug that has been pulled out from under us and most will not realize it until it is too late. Hospitals are very under-staffed and, just as any other job, they have employees that just view it as a 9-5. My mother had AML and was on inpatient for months in 2019(pre-COVID) and I know from personal experience that there were times where if she didn't have someone there to advocate, the nurses would get overwhelmed and sometimes forget she needed turned, changed, water, food, medicine, a soft voice, someone to tell her she will be ok, HOPE!

  This could easily happen to any of us and I want to form a community of people that will stand up with me and insist that hospitals let ONE loved one in (with PPE) to be an advocate for our loved ones. I care deeply about this issue and want a change made in policies... whether it is state laws or just hospital policies. I honestly believe that hospitals can remain safe and allow each patient an advocate.