{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.ronjohnson.senate.gov/2026/09/30/video-release-sen-johnsons-full-roundtable-discussion-covid-19-hospital-protocols-real-stories-from-real-people/", "***VIDEO RELEASE*** Sen. Johnson\u2019s Full Roundtable Discussion:\u00a0COVID-19 Hospital Protocols: Real Stories from Real People", "2026-09-30", "2026", "2026-09", "Republican", "Senate", "WI", "Ron Johnson", "J000293", "www.ronjohnson.senate.gov", "ronjohnson", "https://www.ronjohnson.senate.gov/category/press-releases/", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 On Monday, U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) held a roundtable discussion titled \u201cCOVID-19 Hospital Protocols: Real Stories from Real People\u201d with patients, families, doctors, and nurses. The 21 panelists shared firsthand accounts of mistreatment and other experiences they witnessed at hospitals across the country. In their remarks, panelists detailed how treatments such as remdesivir and ventilation were often forced on patients as the only viable options. Patients were denied alternative treatments and drugs, even when rigid hospital protocols were failing.\n\n\u201cRigid adherence to hospital protocols \u2013 rarely questioned \u2013 became the norm, which many doctors saw as violating the Hippocratic Oath\u2019s core duty: patients first, not protocols. Far too often, the stories of COVID-19 hospitalizations were horrific \u2026 Patients lost their freedom. Family members could not visit and comfort their dying loved ones \u2026 In many of the testimonies received for this event, the callous comments by doctors and nurses to unvaccinated patients and their families are almost unbelievable,\u201d Sen. Johnson said.\n\n\u201cThe stories you are about to hear didn\u2019t occur within only one or two hospitals, but in hospitals across America. To date, we [have] received 583 testimonies from 46 states. The fact that these attitudes were widespread is indisputable. Today, I am providing a platform for these stories to be told so that this kind of cruelty will not be repeated,\u201d Sen. Johnson continued.\n\n\u201cThe other underlying reality is these stories are real \u2026 [The] medical establishment \u2013 those doctors, those nurses \u2013 has to acknowledge the fact [that] these things are real so, once again, it can never be repeated,\u201d Sen. Johnson concluded.\n\nWatch the full four-hour discussion here.\n\nPARTICIPANTS:\n\nPeggy Hokett\n\nPeggy Hokett\u2019s husband, Raymond, died 24 days after being hospitalized in Oklahoma City. He was given remdesivir, told he would die because he was unvaccinated, and placed on a ventilator without consent.\n\nDr. James P. Miller\n\nDr. James P. Miller is a licensed physician and surgeon from Everett, Washington. He spoke on hospital misconduct, patient mistreatment, retaliation, and deliberate targeting of doctors who challenged COVID-era treatment practices.\n\nGail Seiler\n\nGail Seiler of Plano, Texas, was hospitalized with COVID in December 2021. Fortunately, with the help of her husband Brad, she was allowed to leave the hospital and recovered at home. She told her story from the perspective of a patient.\n\nBrad Seiler\n\nBrad Seiler is Gail\u2019s husband, a registered nurse, and a former Army captain. Brad shared what he witnessed during her 15-day hospitalization, his concerns about her treatment, and his successful effort to bring her home.\n\nDonna Lowery, RN\n\nDonna Lowery is a registered nurse with 39 years of clinical experience, including 31 years at a hospital in Florida. After advocating for a COVID patient to receive a physician-ordered ivermectin prescription, she was terminated and faced a complaint filed against her nursing license with the Florida Board of Nursing.\n\nStephanie Williamson\n\nStephanie Williamson\u2019s husband, David, was hospitalized December 10, 2021, in Pomona, New Jersey. He was denied alternative treatments, given remdesivir without consent, and pressured into intubation. David died 30 days later.\n\nRalph Lorigo, Esq.\n\nRalph Lorigo is a Buffalo-area attorney with more than 50 years of legal experience. During the pandemic, he represented 212 families across 40 states who were denied access to alternative treatments and drugs.\n\nDarla Smith\n\nDarla Smith\u2019s husband, Keith, was hospitalized with COVID in York, Pennsylvania, on November 19, 2021. Darla unsuccessfully fought to advocate for his treatment, and Keith died on December 12 after being placed on a ventilator.\n\nDr. John Littell\n\nDr. John Littell is a family physician who cared for thousands of COVID patients in offices, homes, hospitals, and nursing homes. As chairman of family medicine at a Florida hospital, he witnessed patients and families denied treatment options, visitation, and access to dying loved ones.\n\nMelodie McKeel\n\nMelodie McKeel is the wife of Bryan McKeel, who passed away in Sarasota, Florida. Against the wishes of his family, he was intubated and denied further access to ivermectin after showing signs of improvement.\n\nGail Macrae, RN\n\nGail Macrae worked as a registered nurse at a hospital in Santa Rosa, California. During the pandemic, she witnessed the imposition of rigid protocols and the denial of alternative treatments and drugs.\n\nKaren Hayles\n\nKaren Hayles\u2019 son, Chase, was a childhood cancer survivor with preexisting kidney damage. He was assured he would not receive remdesivir when he was hospitalized in Houston in 2021. He received it anyway, further damaging his kidneys. Chase died while awaiting a kidney transplant.\n\nDr. Randy Grellner\n\nDr. Randy Grellner is an Oklahoma state senator and family physician. Randy told the story of his longtime patient and friend, John \u2013 a 72-year-old farmer and Navy veteran who died after being hospitalized.\n\nKatelyn Johnson, RN\n\nKatelyn Johnson is a registered nurse with 10 years of bedside clinical experience and the former director of Medical Services for Paralyzed Veterans of America. She brought firsthand insight into how COVID-19-era hospital protocols affected patient access and the nurses caring for vulnerable veterans.\n\nCori Peth\n\nCori Peth\u2019s father, George, died April 7, 2022, in Colorado after a three-month hospitalization. He was denied monoclonal antibodies, given remdesivir, and told he would die if he refused a ventilator. He later died on the ventilator.\n\nNicole Landers, RN\n\nNicole Landers is a Maryland registered nurse with more than 30 years of clinical experience. During the pandemic, she provided alternative treatments when doctors only offered the standard COVID-19 hospital protocols.\n\nPatti Joyce\n\nPatti Joyce of Jacksonville, Florida, told the story of her brother, Earl Hendrix, who died at 62 in Whitefish, Montana.\n\nDr. Susan Rohr\n\nDr. Susan Rohr is a board-certified pulmonary and critical care physician in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. She challenged rigid treatment protocols and advocated for additional treatment options when patients were told there was nothing more that could be done.\n\nPatty Myers\n\nPatty Myers is a behavior analyst whose husband, Tony, died after a 25-day COVID-19 hospitalization in 2021. During his hospitalization, Patty advocated for and was denied treatments including ivermectin, monoclonal antibodies, high-dose vitamin C, zinc, and vitamin D.\n\nJenna Hadley Johnsen, RN\n\nJenna Hadley Johnsen is a registered nurse, public health nurse, and Certified Legal Nurse Consultant (CLNC) from Minnesota with more than 22 years of experience. She held the medical power of attorney for her father who died after a 24-day COVID hospitalization in January 2022.\n\nDr. Pierre Kory\n\nDr. Pierre Kory is a pulmonary and critical care physician and the Chief Scientific Officer of Rebuild Medicine. He is the former chief of the Critical Care Service at the University of Wisconsin and was a frontline doctor treating patients from the start of the pandemic.\n\n###", 1, "2026-10-01T11:23:28Z", "2026-10-01T11:25:15Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.ronjohnson.senate.gov/2026/09/30/video-release-sen-johnsons-full-roundtable-discussion-covid-19-hospital-protocols-real-stories-from-real-people/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.9783548302948475, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}