Rantz: Providence COVID policy kept wife from husband after surgery — then, he died

Providence Regional Medical Center in Everett again faces criticism over its cruel COVID visitation policy. This time, a wife couldn’t visit her husband until it was too late.

Debe Franz wasn’t even allowed to walk her husband Dean into Providence Everett on the morning of his heart surgery. She watched as her “soulmate and best friend” walked into the hospital. Days later, due to complications, Debe says Dean died — and she wasn’t allowed to visit until after he was placed on life support.

Providence Everett’s COVID visitation policies bar most visitors, even when all parties are vaccinated. An exception is end-of-life visitations. And despite COVID cases being at their lowest numbers since the start of the omicron surge in January, Providence Everett still bans visitors.

‘He was my soulmate and best friend’

Debe and her husband ran a small business in Seattle called A Bit of Taste, which sells high-quality olive oil. The business has been struggling due to crime and homelessness plaguing the city. Add to the mix the COVID economy, and it makes business more precarious.

Adding to the stress, just before Thanksgiving, Debe says her husband Dean went to Providence Everett for a double bypass and aortic valve replacement.

After what Debe says was a “tearful goodbye shared in the hospital driveway,” Dean was off for surgery.

Debe says she was originally told she could be with Dean in the hospital. She later learned, due to the threat of the delta variant of COVID-19, she was being denied entry. Both she and her husband had been vaccinated and recovered from COVID.

Though she says most of the ICU nurses were “wonderful,” it’s not the same as being there yourself.

“But it’s just not the same as being there, you need an advocate for your loved one,” Debe tearfully told the Jason Rantz Show on KTTH. “And you know, that hospital says that they consider the family as part of the team. … And when they built that ICU, they made it so that they even have a little bed in the window, so a family member can be there. And then me, one of the most important people who is going to be his caregiver after his heart surgery, couldn’t even be there. I couldn’t even hear the doctor’s reports in the morning, and know what happened.”

Rantz: Cruel Providence COVID rule won’t allow senior to visit wife after her stroke

Things took a turn for the worse

For the first few days, Debe says she got some calls from the hospital with updates, but the doctors only called when they needed her to approve of certain procedures as her husband recovered.

Debe says they put Dean on intubation on the fourth day of his recovery. She spoke to him that evening.

“He answered his phone but was in crisis and spiraling downward, and had to abruptly get off the phone. Then he was intubated, and we never spoke again,” Debe explained.

When she called the hospital around 10:30 p.m., she said he was “somewhat stable.” Several hours later, hospital staff called back asking her “to be available to come to the hospital,” she recalls, “which meant he was not good and dying.”

She and her son were finally allowed to visit Dean. She says she was told that “life support was the only thing keeping him alive.” They honored his medical directive and made the difficult decision to take him off life support.

Dean died on Nov. 19, 2021, at 4:42 a.m. Less than one month later, they would have celebrated 37 years of marriage.

Debe won’t stay quiet

Debe decided to share her story after reading my piece on how Providence Everett was keeping an elderly couple apart.

When George’s 65-year-old wife was admitted for a stroke, he was not allowed to visit her. She was all alone, and both were scared. Debe understood their struggle and was inspired by Dean to speak up when something wasn’t right.

“He was … my best friend, and my soulmate. And he treated me like an equal and made me a better person. We made each other better,” Debe said of Dean. “And he’d be like, you go, Debe, you share your story. And, you know, try to make a positive difference. So it feels good to do this, but it’s hard. Most days are fine, most moments are fine, but then grief comes in waves — and it can get triggered by things like reading about that gentleman’s story that has so many similarities.”

Providence Everett won’t change their policy

The delta variant has almost entirely disappeared. The omicron surge is over in Snohomish County and all of Washington state. We are moving into the endemic stage of COVID, and Governor Jay Inslee is readying an announcement to end the indoor mask mandate.

Providence Everett, as of Sunday, Feb. 13, still has not changed its COVID visitation policy. And spokespeople will not respond to questions on what the COVID case rate must be to change its policy.

The Washington State Department of Health recommends screening of visitors.

Washington hospitals allow COVID-symptomatic staff to work while following guidelines. Does Providence Everett allow for that? Spokespeople refuse to say. But it’s happening statewide. Why can’t fully vaccinated and masked visitors see their loved ones?

Providence Everett robbed Debe of her last moments with the love of her life. And they did it to serve a policy that is needlessly cruel.

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