There’s still a lot Precious Hoskins-Sutton wants to know about how her husband died of COVID-19, but for now she wants everyone to remember how he kept people laughing and always had a positive attitude, even as he began experiencing symptoms.
When Jerome Sutton entered the hospital March 31, he told his 4-year-old son he’d be back in just a few days — to make slime with him and play video games. “Those little things they liked to do together,” Hoskins-Sutton said.
His family believed him. Sutton was only 37, and while he had some underlying health issues, his condition stabilized once he was placed on a ventilator. But just four days later, Hoskins-Sutton said she received a call from her husband’s doctor.
“He had a very eventful morning,” a doctor told her, then explained that her husband died after his ventilator became disconnected while he was being repositioned.
“It’s very devastating,” Hoskins-Sutton said.
Above all else, Hoskins-Sutton said her husband was a family man. He spent every night at home taking care of their son. “They were literally best friends,” she said. “Boys usually cling to their mother, but that was never my son. His daddy was his person.”
During his time off, Sutton took care of the older members of his family, running errands for his aunts or driving his grandmother to the bank. On weekends, he drove for Uber to bring in extra cash. “He was so much to so many people,” Hoskins-Sutton said
Sutton had a large group of friends. “To know him was to love him, simply,” said Hoskins-Sutton. “He could make anybody laugh.”
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She said all his leisure time was spent at home, often playing cards with friends, his son at his side.
Hoskins-Sutton and her husband were together for 12 years. “We were one of those couples, we still went on frequent dates,” she said.
The couple made sure to have a big family outing with their son at least once a month. In March, they took a trip to Medieval Times. “He was beyond a great father,” Hoskins-Sutton said. “He would go above and beyond for his child, above and beyond for me, above and beyond for his family. He was everything for everybody.”
Sutton worked for a company that provided medical transportation. For the past year, he drove patients to and from doctor appointments. “He was hardworking, he was a good provider,” Hoskins-Sutton said.
The day the stay-at-home order was announced in Illinois was the last time Sutton went to work. That Sunday, Sutton began exhibiting symptoms of COVID-19. “He woke up and was just like, ‘I don’t feel good,’ and ‘It feels like my body is fighting something,’ ” Hoskins-Sutton said.
It began with body aches, but Sutton was a tough guy and worked to push through the pain. A few days later, he got a fever and Hoskins-Sutton rushed home from work and took her husband to the hospital.
First, the couple went to West Suburban Medical Center but were told it was not equipped to see potential COVID-19 patients at the time. So they drove to Rush Oak Park Hospital, where Sutton tested positive for the coronavirus and was sent home to quarantine.
Sutton isolated himself in a room, separate from his wife and son. A few days later, Hoskins-Sutton went to check on her husband and noticed he was having trouble breathing.
Sutton drove himself back to the hospital in Oak Park the morning of March 31 and was told he would be placed on a ventilator. The hospital decided to transfer Sutton to Rush University Medical Center in Chicago for further treatment.
The last time Hoskins-Sutton spoke to her husband was during a video chat, just before they placed him on a ventilator. “We told him we would see him later, see him in a few days,” Hoskins-Sutton said.
Early on April 3, about 1 a.m., Hoskins-Sutton called Rush to check on her husband. She said doctors told her he was stable and continuing to receive oxygen from the ventilator.
About 7 a.m. Rush called Hoskins-Sutton. She said they told her that during repositioning her husband’s ventilator fell out and he started to “crash,” adding “there was nothing they could do to save him.”
“Her (the doctor’s) exact words were, ‘He had a very eventful morning,’ ” Hoskins-Sutton said. “And she said, ‘He crashed, we got him back, but when we went to clean him up he crashed again.’ He was too fragile from everything.”
Sutton had been on his stomach while on the ventilator, according to his wife. Hoskins-Sutton says Rush told her this was the course of action taken for all patients with respiratory distress disorders.
When her husband was transferred to Rush in Chicago, Hoskins-Sutton says she was also told he would be taken off a paralytic medication used to aid patients on ventilators because of a shortage of the drug. He was placed back on the medication the day before his death, according to Hoskins-Sutton, but she did not know how this may have impacted treatment.
In the days following her husband’s death, Hoskins-Sutton says she heard nothing from the hospital, aside from the morgue asking which funeral home to send his body to. Weeks later, Hoskins-Sutton said Rush reached out and explained a ventilator falling out is a risk associated with the procedure.
“It’s very unfortunate that a mishap like a ventilator slipping out happens and it can’t even be looked into because he had COVID-19,” she said. “No one is allowed in the hospital so I can literally only go off of what they told me.”
Rush would not discuss Sutton’s case with the Tribune, but in a statement said “we have had incredible success in saving the lives of those infected by this horrible disease.” West Suburban had no immediate comment.
Hoskins-Sutton says she is too traumatized to plan a memorial. And besides, Hoskins-Sutton said her husband’s immediate family is too large to gather under social distancing restrictions.
“He has siblings, his father’s still alive, his grandmother’s still alive,” Hoskins-Sutton said. “We would have to exclude people intentionally to have a proper celebration at this point, so I decided to postpone it.”
Hoskins-Sutton said she spent her entire adult life with her husband by her side. Now, she says, “I have to figure out adulthood from square one, with a toddler who every day is asking about his father.”
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