During the Covid pandemic, patients in hospitals and nursing homes were not allowed visitors. My 26-year-old daughter was one of those patients. She was diagnosed with Covid the day she went into labor. 

She would spend just five days shy of two months in the hospital. She was on the vent for almost thirty days. When she went on the vent, she was past her ability to spread Covid. The hospital would still not let me be at her bedside until the last couple weeks. She was 26 years old, just had a baby, and couldn’t be with her baby or family. 

Covid is not only a sickness in the body, it also affects your mental health. We as a country say we care about mental health, but we isolate those who need us most. 

I want Georgia to follow in the footsteps of Florida and make it where, from here on out, no patient is left alone. 

Every person needs at least one caregiver to ask questions, give medical history, and be present to watch for mistakes made by healthcare workers. We all make mistakes, but a tired staff can make grave mistakes. I have personally witnessed mistakes and unanswered calls that would have turned bad had I not been at my daughter’s bedside for those few days I was able to be there. I have also witnessed these mistakes in the past, when my mother was in the hospital fighting cancer. 

People need their families. After I was finally allowed to be with my daughter, she started to make leaps and bounds in her recovery. A recovery that could have come much sooner had her family been allowed to see her earlier.

I don’t want to be in the position of sitting in a parking lot waiting for an update ever again. If I am ever in this position again, I want to be at the bedside, making a decision and protecting my family, especially when they can’t speak for themselves. 

Covid is not the only thing that took people’s lives. The mental strain and heartbreak brought on by the overwhelming loneliness also took people’s lives.

Please sign this petition so it can get the attention it needs, so that those we love are never forced to suffer alone again.