My brother entered the Montefiore Hospital Moses Campus in the Bronx, N.Y. on Saturday January 21st 2023. The family was not notified of him being in their care until three days later after his arrival. The doctor stated to me that “there was no next of kin listed so I called his aunt”. My Aunt says that “the phone call left her confused because the doctor was vague about what was happening with Jason, so the information that was relayed to us was very limited.
The caring physician gave us 3 different accounts on three different visits of how my brother entered their hospital, so we don’t really know what happened or how he arrived at the Hospital. On our 1st visit we were told that “he entered the hospital unresponsive & we got him back” (Lie#1). The 2nd visit the Doctor told us that “when he arrived I spoke with him & his complaint was a slight breathing issue, he has slight covid (Lie#2). The 3rd visit we were told “that he passed out while walking to the ambulance” but no one has any idea where this occurred(Lie#3).
My brother was improving daily despite the fact that he was tied to a hospital bed with his hands bound. I was told all this was being done to keep him calm. She kept him sedated especially when he started communicating with us. The Doctor and the nurse kept trying to convince us that he wasn’t communicating with us while he was doing it with them standing there looking at him. She said “oh no he’s sedated he’s unresponsive”.
January 25th, 2023 I was asked to sign a consent form to place a port in his neck we had not been notified that one was already in place regardless of our many visits to the hospital. When I asked for the day’s date while signing the document, I was told not to worry about writing in the date. I then spoke up stating that there is a port already in place so why is it being changed”? The Doctor replied “it’s been a week” (Lie#4) My brother had not been there a full week. January 29th, 10:30 a.m. the Doctor calls & says we are working on him, then 5 min later she calls and says sorry it’s not our fault but that it was my brother’s health issues, I told her I was driving & around the corner but she wouldn’t release the call so I had to hang up on her.
When I arrived upstairs the Dr. came out to speak to me & as I glanced at the patient’s glass partition I saw 3 to 4 men (secretly) standing behind me? She starts to reiterate the phone call of how bad off my brother was and how it’s not us we did all we could and then she asks me if I want to “donate my brother’s organs”? I replied “no”. She then asked “Do you want an autopsy”? I said “yes”. She then proceeded to tell me that an autopsy takes 30 days to perform (Lie#5) & would derail any funeral plans that I would want to make (Lie#6), so are you thinking cremation because there is no need for an autopsy we all know what happened (Lie#7) Or you can let the city bury him in potters.
Only her & her team are privy to what happened with my brother, and her concern for not having an autopsy and disposing of my brother via cremation is alarming. Why is she concerned about my brother’s funeral arrangements that she is derailing? She continuously tried to talk me out of getting the very thing that she offered me “an autopsy”. The majority of the conversation was not about his health, it was about not getting an autopsy and how the body would be disposed of. As I’m trying to get to his bedside she then ends the conversation with “I will see if they will approve it”.
I said to the Dr. “I have one more question to ask you, were you guys able to get rid of the covid or does he still have it”? She “Oh no he still has it”. I replied ok & walked away (covid?). When I came out of my brother’s room the Dr. stated that “she will see if my brother qualifies for an autopsy and that the pathologist will call you on Monday” (Lie#8). The pathologist never called us. That Monday 2/30/23 I got a call from Carl from medical records stating that “Your request for an autopsy has been denied because your brother does not meet the weight requirements”. Carl stated that he would email us a copy of the hospital policy with the weight requirements (Lie#9), still waiting.
2/9/23 I called the Hospital to advise them that the Funeral director would be coming to retrieve my brother and was told that my brother was released two days prior on 2/7/23 to the Medical Examiner’s office at 5020 1st avenue N.Y., NY. I was given the case number and telephone number to call. I called the ME’s office only to be informed that my brother wasn’t at that location and was never brought to that location & that they couldn’t provide me with any additional information.
I start my search for hours on end to locate my brother with no luck tracking his body down. One day at 3:00pm I got a phone call from the ME’s office in Queens who stated this is a courtesy call we have your brother & he’s ready for pick up! I said “I can’t have him picked up this very minute because we were unaware of his whereabouts and I have to contact the funeral director. The ME replied “when will you have him picked up!” I responded I have to contact the funeral director and give him his location. The funeral home had other obligations and couldn’t do an immediate pick up so I called the ME to relay the message and was told that if he’s not picked up by the end of the week?… I asked the ME “being that my brother is already there can your office perform the autopsy”? She said “yes” but your brother’s death certificate says “DO NOT PERFORM AUTOPSY” the death certificate would have to be amended in order for us to do it. I asked even if he has covid? The ME stated that “there is no covid listed anywhere on his death certificate”.
I called the hospital and spoke to Dr.Paul about amending my brother’s death certificate, Dr.Paul said “it shouldn’t be a problem & he would see about getting it done. When I spoke with him last I gave him the ME’s phone number so that he could get a better understanding from the ME on what needed to be revised in order to do the autopsy. Later the same day I received a chastising phone call from the ME’s office stating “I don’t need the hospital to do anything with the death certificate because we are not doing the autopsy”. The sentence was then repeated to me more than once.
The doctor filled out my brother’s death certificate as if he were a John Doe with only his name and an incomplete address. We were there everyday visiting and not once did she ask about his nationality, his parents’ names or anything of that nature that was needed to fill out his death certificate, but she was sure to fill out the funeral director’s portion of the death certificate and the area for potters field. We were bullied, intimidated and constantly threatened with my brother’s body being dumped in potter’s field. We were harassed with his removal and constantly given misinformation and denied his medical records. And to add insult to injury I complained to the director of the hospital about all of this and the director asked me “where does this doctor work”?. I said “your hospital”. He says I have no Idea who this woman is, looks her up on the computer and says she doesn’t work here your brother’s doctor is a man. He says that I will have to investigate this because there is no record of this doctor, she’s not listed anywhere on his medical records .
We are now going on moth three my brothers Birthday is April 4th and we are still trying to get a private autopsy because I refuse to let them get away with this. I called 80 facilities in NYC and no one will touch this issue. I found a pathologist at 1-800 autopsy out in colorado who will perform the autopsy at the funeral home but the funding goal was never met. The autopsy is $6,275.00 and the funeral home charges $500.00 to use their facility. We have a plot that has been previously paid for and we may need an extra $4,000.00 to cover the funeral arrangements. I am more concerned with raising the money for the autopsy that is the most important thing. We need to find out why my brother died and the truth about his death because he is not the only one that this has happened to.
I will not bury him without an autopsy. He and his family deserve to be at peace. knowing how he passed away is the key. Thank you for your consideration in advance.