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During Sen. Ron Johnson’s (R-Wis.) roundtable on COVID-19 hospital care today, Brad Seiler described the desperate effort to get his wife, Gail, out of a hospital after staff told him she was “unsavable.”
When Brad finally got her discharged, he said hospital staff wouldn’t let them leave through the main entrance. Instead, Gail was taken down a freight elevator used to transport bodies to the morgue and escorted out through doors used by funeral homes.
A nurse told him, “She’ll be dead tonight, or before you even get home.” Gail survived.
“Today, Gail is alive, healthy, active, and enjoying life with our grandchildren and children,” Seiler said.
Seiler was one of 21 patients, family members, doctors and nurses who testified at the “COVID-19 Hospital Protocols: Real Stories from Real People” roundtable. Johnson said that as of Sept. 26, his office had received 583 testimonies from people in 46 states.
“Today I am providing a platform for these stories to be told so that this kind of cruelty will not be repeated,” Johnson said.
🧵Watch my opening remarks here: COVID-19 Hospital Protocols: Real Stories from Real People. pic.twitter.com/O25iiEeHYl
— Senator Ron Johnson (@SenRonJohnson) September 28, 2026
‘It is our responsibility to make sure this never happens again’
Stephanie Williamson of New Jersey described losing her husband, Dave, after what she said was a series of decisions made without informed consent or family input.
“My children never saw their father again. Dave’s dad never saw his son,” Williamson said.
She said she was pressured into consenting to her husband’s intubation.
“The night my husband was intubated, I realized I was coerced into consenting to put him on a ventilator,” she said.
Williamson said she had waited four and a half years to tell her husband’s story.
“This is about humanity,” she said. “Patient care should not be driven by reimbursements. A doctor’s hands should never be tied, and no patient should ever be left alone. It is our responsibility to make sure this never happens again.”
Florida registered nurse Donna Lowery said she was fired after 31 years on the job because she advocated for a hospitalized patient and recommended ivermectin. Lowery said once the drug was stopped, the patient deteriorated quickly, was placed on a ventilator and died.
“For me, there was a patient. There was a family in need of help, and there was a choice,” Lowery said. “I chose to help. I paid for that decision, but I would make it again.”
‘There is no healing without hope’
Florida physician Dr. John Littell, who was disciplined for prescribing ivermectin, said doctors have a duty to advocate for patients who feel abandoned by the healthcare system.
“My motivation and our motivation needs to be advocates for those patients who are abandoned by a healthcare system,” Littell said. “There is no healing without hope.”
New York attorney Ralph Lorigo described taking hospitals to court on behalf of families seeking access to ivermectin.
Before the coronavirus pandemic, “I was a believer in what was put forth by our governmental agencies,” he said. “I generally believed that medical professionals would do everything under their power to treat individuals and save lives. That all changed in 2021.”
Lorigo described one woman who improved after receiving ivermectin but was denied further doses. He sued, and a court ordered the hospital to provide the drug.
“Six days later, that lady was able to leave the hospital. She’s alive today,” he said.
In another case, a woman failed to force doctors to give ivermectin to her husband, who was on a ventilator. She then secretly administered the drug herself.
“She crushed up the ivermectin herself,” Lorigo said. “She brought it to the hospital. She put it in the feeding tube herself. She did that for two weeks. The hospital had no idea. Her husband survived. That woman is a hero.”
Investigative journalist Michael Capuzzo also described Lorigo’s cases in a Substack post. Capuzzo wrote that 212 families in 40 states hired Lorigo and that Lorigo won 72 cases. Of the 72 patients then given invermetin, 69 patients survived.
“The three who died had been in induced comas for too long; the damage was too great,” Capuzzo wrote.
Capuzzo also wrote that in 140 cases in which hospitals defeated Lorigo’s efforts or he could not get to court in time, all 140 patients died.
“That’s some pretty powerful evidence,” Johnson said.
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‘This is about medical freedom and the right to try’
Lorigo said the issue extends beyond any specific virus or treatment.
“Our healthcare system needs great modification,” he said. “This is no longer about COVID or ivermectin. This is about medical freedom and the right to try. This is about governmental suppression and how big giants like Big Pharma control our destiny.”
Johnson said fear during the pandemic gave government leaders too much control over hospital protocols.
“There were leaders who used the fear of the unknown to gain undue power and control over our response to COVID,” Johnson said.
The roundtable was the first of Johnson’s events devoted entirely to what happened inside hospitals during the pandemic. His office said the senator plans to continue collecting testimonies and posting them on his U.S. Senate website.
“It’s not easy to read these testimonies,” Johnson said. “They are heartbreaking stories.”
For those who shared their stories, the roundtable was about more than documenting what happened. It was also about seeking accountability and ensuring the experiences of patients and families were not forgotten.
“What I hope comes from today is truth, accountability and justice for those who are no longer here, and healing for the families left behind,” Dan Rudy, founder of Hope House Orlando, who attended the roundtable, told The Defender. “Their voices, their stories and their loved ones must never be forgotten.”
The next step could move beyond personal accounts to the records behind them. TrialSite News called for Congress to obtain COVID-19 hospital protocols and their revisions, along with records from families and testimony from clinicians who challenged the protocols, hospital executives and federal health officials.
“America owes its deceased something more durable than competing pandemic narratives,” TrialSite News wrote. “It owes them the record.”
Watch the roundtable here:
Related articles in The Defender
- ‘The Stories Are Horrific’: What Happened in Hospitals During COVID
- ‘They Have to Be Stopped’: Woman Says COVID Hospital Protocols Caused Husband’s Death
- ‘Medical Warfare’: Doctors Who Questioned COVID Shots, Promoted Ivermectin Lose Certification
- He Sought Help for a Broken Leg That Wouldn’t Heal. The Hospital Treated Him for COVID — Then Declared Him Brain Dead
- Witness to Tragedy: ‘Huge’ Financial Incentives Led Hospitals to Use COVID Treatments That Killed Patients
