News
Featured Image

HAMILTON, Massachusetts (LifeSiteNews) — Following a nine-day ordeal in which she was refused treatment for COVID-19 and pneumonia, and effectively separated from her family, Janet Aldrich has been released from hospital.

For nine days, 78-year-old Aldrich was denied the care she requested for her life-threatening health conditions, even being forcibly placed into isolation after revealing to medics that she hadn’t (and wouldn’t) receive an experimental COVID-19 shot.

Aldrich was admitted to Lahey Hospital and Medical Center in Burlington, Massachusetts, on September 5 after developing pneumonia in both of her lungs. Upon arrival at the hospital, Aldrich clarified her wishes not to be put onto a ventilator, but after testing positive for COVID-19, doctors insisted she use mechanical ventilation, telling her she could be dead within 24 hours if not.

LifeSiteNews spoke with a close family friend of Aldrich, who said the hospital became very hostile after Aldrich refused to use ventilation. “They every single day pressured her, hammered her, tried to wear her down to get her to agree to go on the ventilator,” she said.

The hospital continued to push Aldrich into receiving a potentially dangerous treatment regime that she had resolutely rejected for eight days straight. “They badgered her several times a day … Even the night before she was discharged from the hospital, knowing that she was going home, they still tried to persuade her to go on the ventilator,” LifeSite’s source said.

The family friend said hospital staff originally “were very nice and very sweet to her.” But after learning that Aldrich had not taken the COVID jab, “she said immediately their [Lahey Hospital’s] attitude changed.”

Aldrich’s sister, Patricia Lefebvre, told conservative commentator and radio host Jeff Kuhner that after Aldrich revealed she would not take a COVID shot, “the entire staff has been extremely hostile to us, they will not listen to us, and they will not take our requests to put her on a medication regime.”

The medication Aldrich requested was prescribed by America’s Frontline Doctors (AFLDS) and has been proven effective against COVID-19. Instead, “all they’re [Lahey Hospital] doing is giving her an IV and water, and she’s on high-level oxygen … and she’s getting worse,” Lefevbre explained. “They won’t even give her a vitamin cocktail.”

After continuing to refuse the hospital’s recommendation of going on a ventilator, subsequently being placed into isolation where she was unable to see her family or be monitored by anyone other than hospital staff, Aldrich was eventually discharged from Lahey on September 14 with the understanding that she would soon die; however, her health is now improving.

Aldrich, a veteran journalist and devoted Christian, received a treatment plan for her condition from AFLDS, a group dedicated to promoting truthful research about COVID-19 and the available remedies.

Massachusetts-based political freedom group WeThePeople said Aldrich’s family had requested that the hospital use the AFLDS COVID protocol, in line with Aldrich’s wishes. After being denied the healthcare she requested, the family sought an emergency injunction so the 78-year-old might begin taking the prescribed medication.

“Lahey refused and a court order was not obtained,” WeThePeople wrote.

LifeSite’s source confirmed that the courts could not take Aldrich’s case for several days, before which point “the situation had gotten so bad and so hostile that the family decided all they wanted to do was get her out of there … that’s all they wanted. They just wanted her out so that she could have her health choices respected.”

Aldrich’s friend confirmed that “there was no way the hospital was going to make that treatment [AFLDS protocol] because then they would be agreeing with alternative medicine instead of the Big Pharma mainstream … The truth is being censored and that is highly suspect and it’s extremely scary.”

She explained that Aldrich was not being given fluids and that a Do Not Resuscitate order had been imposed, though neither Aldrich nor her healthcare proxy, Mark Aldrich, had requested the order.

Given the deteriorating circumstances, a protest formed outside of the hospital, where supporters demanded that Lahey respect Aldrich’s wishes and begin treating her condition without using a ventilator.

They further protested Aldrich’s enforced seclusion, which appeared to violate the hospital’s own rules. Under federal law, too, Lahey Hospital is bound to ensure patients are “free from seclusion and restraints, of any form, imposed as a means of coercion, discipline, convenience, or retaliation by staff.”

Just days later, Lahey agreed to release Aldrich and she was able to return home, where she is now receiving care from a physician of her choice and is making use of the AFLDS treatment plan. Aldrich chalks up her discharge from Lahey to the many friends, family, doctors, and lawyers — as well as all those who demonstrated outside the hospital — who worked for her release around the clock throughout her 9-day stint at the hospital.

Lahey Hospital did not immediately respond to LifeSite’s request for comment.

Lefebvre told LifeSiteNews that Aldrich’s pneumonia has since subsided and that “it appears like she’s really on the mend.”

“She feels wonderful,” Lefebvre added, “but I don’t think she is aware of how long it’s going to take to come back [to full health].”

Although only out of the hospital a little over 24 hours, Aldrich took to social media to thank all of the supporters who had petitioned the hospital to respect her wishes, and who had been praying for her.

“I just want to thank every person on earth that prayed for me. Let’s join and make a big prayer warrior wall against all that’s happening. Thank you so much,” Aldrich said.

While receiving oxygen to assist her breathing, Aldrich explained “I’m sitting in my son’s home; he’s created a whole room for me, and I’m being taken care of by the most amazing people.”

“I really care about you and I’m so grateful for your prayers. I’m alive, I’m not dead.”

For Aldrich, as an outspoken defender of the American Constitution and the rights and freedoms of American citizens, opposing Lahey Hospital was not simply about protecting her own health decisions, but that of all Americans. “This is what Janet [Aldrich] has dedicated her life to: standing up, showing, and telling the truth. Standing up for freedom,” her close friend explained to LifeSite. “She’s a great patriot.”

Aldrich has inevitably racked up high medical costs during her hospital stay and now that she is receiving care with physicians privately, the costs continue to grow. To this end, her son Mark has established a GiveSendGo fundraising campaign.

LifeSiteNews has produced an extensive COVID-19 vaccines resources page. View it here.