“I miss her immensely.”
Those are the words of Scott Schara, father of Grace Naomi (Emily) Schara, who died on Oct. 13, 2021, at age 19 at Ascension St. Elizabeth Hospital in Appleton, Wisconsin.
Grace died just days after she tested positive for COVID-19 and went to an urgent care facility where she was treated for low oxygen levels.
In an interview with The Defender, Schara, a businessman turned advocate, recalled his daughter’s love of Elvis, writing, horseback riding and her sense of humor.
Grace’s family in July sued the hospital and some of its doctors and nurses alleging the hospital’s COVID-19 treatment protocols directly resulted in her death. A jury trial — the first in the U.S. challenging these protocols — has been scheduled for Nov. 4, 2024.
Since Grace’s death, Schara has become an advocate for victims of the protocols and their family members, launching a website and podcast, and producing a documentary detailing Grace’s and other victims’ stories.
In his interview with The Defender, Schara shared the circumstances leading to Grace’s hospitalization and subsequent death, documentation about the treatment she received and the upcoming lawsuit, and progress with his advocacy efforts.
‘Financial incentives’ to place patients on ventilators, administer remdesivir
Grace’s ordeal began on Oct. 1, 2021, when she tested positive for COVID-19 using a home testing kit. Five days later, her oxygen saturation had dropped to 88% as shown on the pulse oximeter her parents purchased in accordance with the Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance’s (FLCCC) COVID-19 treatment protocol.
According to the protocol, hospitalization is recommended if oxygen saturation drops below 94%. Schara, however, now questions this recommendation.
“I’m not throwing FLCCC under the bus at all, but the fear propaganda influenced my critical thinking,” he said. “If you’re going to start measuring something, you’ve got to know what to measure against, not a number someone throws out.”
“What I’ve learned subsequently is when a person catches a cold or flu, their oxygen saturation naturally drops,” Schara said. He recounted being hospitalized with COVID-19 and low blood oxygen levels around the same time as his daughter, at a different hospital where he “just about died.”
Schara learned through his research that certain individuals have a genetic predisposition to produce low oxygen saturation, reasoning Grace likely inherited this trait from him. “It was a really foolish move on our part to even buy that [pulse oximeter] tool,” he said.
When Grace was transferred from the urgent care facility to St. Elizabeth’s Hospital, the emergency room physician told him Grace would be placed “on oxygen and steroids for three or four days and she’ll be home.”
This wasn’t the course of treatment Grace received, however.
“If they would’ve only done that, Grace would be alive today,” Schara said. “But they didn’t do what they said. They just started that way.”
Schara said he was by Grace’s side at the hospital from Oct. 6-10, 2021, when he was “escorted out by an armed guard.” Following this, COVID-19 hospital protocols were implemented, which he alleges were driven by financial interests.
According to Schara, Grace was administered Precedex, a sedative produced by Pfizer “that should never be used with COVID.” However, “they use it because their goal with COVID is dollars and the main dollars are for getting somebody on a ventilator — and they have to be sedated to be put on a ventilator,” he said.
“They asked my wife and I five different times for a pre-authorization to put Grace on a ventilator,” Schara said. “We never approved it, nor should anybody approve a ventilator when somebody has a COVID diagnosis. A ventilator has a 90% kill rate with COVID, so why do it? And it’s simply because of the financial incentives.”
Schara is referring to financial bonuses available through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security, or CARES Act, for applying the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) COVID-19 hospital protocol, which includes the administration of remdesivir and the use of ventilators.
Grace’s room was “classified as an ICU room” — a classification which brings hospitals more money under CDC protocols, he said — “even though Grace never changed rooms, nor did the care change.”
This was not the only reason why this change was made, Schara said. “The other thing that happens when somebody is on a sedation med is, the patient gets classified as ‘against medical advice’ if you try to remove them. I found that out, obviously, after the fact.”
Read More: Dad Describes Hospital’s COVID ‘Protocols’
