No one dies alone

“No one dies alone” or Senate Bill 22-053 is probably the most important bill I have ever championed in my legislative career.

During the pandemic we learned a lot about what we did right and what we did wrong and what we can do better. One of the most important lessons was how we destroyed the patient/family relationship and the health of patients by denying someone to advocate for them or just provide support.

We heard testimony about a 2-year-old boy that didn’t have COVID-19 but had a seizure and the Flight for Life paramedics loaded him up and sent him to Denver from a small community in rural Colorado. With the parents of this boy still two and a half hours away from the new hospital, those parents called a family member that lived in Denver so that this toddler would not be scared. The hospital locked down and said no visitors — period.

An hour and a half after the child arrived in Denver, the parents made it to the hospital but it was too late. At that point, the young boy was nonresponsive and would never see his family again. This, like many stories, is inhumane and unacceptable for a civilized society.

The argument that hospitals are making is they need to protect their staff and other patients from an infectious disease, but yet those same doctors, nurses and medical staff still go to the same school events, the same grocery store, the same restaurants or just the same places they have always gone with the same exposures.

Should there be stricter protocols for protecting the patients and medical staff? Absolutely, and this piece of legislation allows these health care facilities to place restrictions on these visitors such as testing, required personal protective equipment, screening of visitors, signing liability waivers and any other reasonable restriction to protect everyone affected.

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