Name of Victim: James Hadley
Age of Victim: 69
Sex of Victim: Male
What Is This Testimony About: Hospital Protocol Death
State: MN
Name of Hospital(s) victim was admitted to (List All that apply): North Memorial
Did the victim survive? No
Date of Death: 01/30/2022
Contact Name: Jenna Hadley Johnsen
Relationship to Victim: Daughter
Was the victim a military Veteran? No
Was the victim considered special needs, or did they have any kind of disability? No
Was the victim admitted to the hospital? Yes
County Hospital is located in: Hennipen
Date Admitted: 01/06/2022
Was the victim isolated at any time during hospitalization? Yes
Does the victim or family feel they were treated differently by hospital staff as a result of disclosing their vaccination status? Yes
Was the victim or family pressured to sign a Do Not Resuscitate? Yes
Was the victim deprived of food and water while in the hospital? Yes
Was victim placed on a ventilator? Yes
What medications were administered to the victim by doctors or hospital staff?
Antibiotics, Anxiety Medications, Ativan, Azithromycin, Blood Thinners, Blood Pressure Medications, Budesonide, Dexamethasone, Dilaudid, Diuretics, Fentanyl, Heparin, Insulin, Lasix, Lorazepam, Midazolam, Morphine, Oxygen, Pain Killers, Prednisone, Paralytics, Precedex, Propofol, Sedatives, Sodium Chloride, Steroids, Vasopressin, Vitamin C, Xanax
What medications did the hospital explicitly refuse to administer to the victim?
Antibiotics, Antihistamines, Antivirals, Budesonide, Convalescent Plasma, Ivermectin, Monoclonal Antibodies, Vitamin C, Vitamin D, Zinc, Adaptvil, the FLCCC Protocol
Has this incident been reported to any agency such as VAERS, HHS, JACHO, Medical Board or others? Yes
Place of Death: Hospital
Would you be interested in participating in podcasts or other media? Yes
James Hadley: Betrayed Behind Hospital Doors
James Hadley was not a number. He was not a “COVID death.” He was a beloved husband, father, grandfather, brother, friend, businessman, builder, outdoorsman, gardener, golfer, and the steady center of a family who adored him.
To his daughter Jenna, he was simply her favorite. She was a daddy’s girl, and that bond shaped the fight she would later wage for his life. James was one of eleven children, a man who loved history, photography, camping, motorcycles, gardening, golfing, and time with his family. He and his wife had known each other since kindergarten and started dating in tenth grade. They were approaching their fiftieth wedding anniversary and their seventieth birthdays when everything was stolen from them.
James had worked hard his whole life. He owned a business, helped build major structures, and after decades of labor, had finally begun enjoying retirement with his wife. He had earned peace, family, and time. Instead, in January 2022, he was taken into a hospital system that his daughter believes killed him through COVID protocols, not COVID.
Jenna Hadley Johnsen is not only James’s daughter. She is a registered nurse. She was also her parents’ medical and financial power of attorney. Her family had done everything people are told to do. They had legal documents. They had healthcare directives. James had a daughter with medical knowledge, experience, and authority to advocate for him. Jenna understood medications, oxygen, patient rights, informed consent, and the danger of respiratory suppression. She knew what questions to ask and what lines should never be crossed.
James did not want to go to the hospital. He knew what was happening to people once they disappeared behind hospital doors during COVID. Jenna had been helping care for him at home, but when his breathing worsened and she suspected a possible blood clot or heart-related issue, she believed he needed help that could not safely be handled at home. In one of the last clear moments she would ever have with him, James told her, “Jenna, I trust you.”
That trust would become one of the deepest wounds of her life.
James was admitted to North Memorial on January 6, 2022. Jenna says he was alert, texting, communicating, and on oxygen support. He was sick, but he was not a dying man. He needed evaluation, proper care, and individualized treatment. Instead, the protocol took over.
Jenna monitored his chart and called repeatedly. As his POA and as a nurse, she gave clear instructions. She told staff not to make major decisions or give certain medications without speaking to her. She specifically warned them not to give him Dilaudid again, not to sedate him in ways that could suppress his breathing, and not to put him on a ventilator.
The next call she received was that they had vented her father.
Jenna screamed for them to take it off. She had not consented. James had not wanted it. There was no meaningful informed consent from the person legally authorized to speak for him. Jenna believes he was drugged into compliance because the father she knew would never have willingly agreed to be placed on a ventilator. After that, James never came back to her.
The family was told the same line so many families heard: they were going to “let his lungs rest.” They said they would wake him each day. But Jenna says they never truly did. When James fought the ventilator or tried to wake up, more sedation and paralytics followed. She describes a cascade of medications that included powerful sedatives, pain medications, anxiety medications, and paralytics — drugs that can silence a patient, suppress breathing, and make it impossible for them to advocate for themselves.
To Jenna, COVID may have been the reason he sought care, but it was not what killed him. What killed him, she believes, was the protocol: isolation, ignored POA rights, lack of informed consent, ventilation, heavy sedation, refusal of requested treatments, fixation on his unvaccinated status, pressure for a DNR, and a system that refused to listen even when the advocate was his own daughter and an experienced nurse.
James was unvaccinated, and Jenna says that became a defining issue in his care. She saw “UNVACCINATED” emphasized in his live chart and says providers repeatedly brought up his vaccination status instead of focusing on the individualized care he needed. In more than twenty years as a nurse, she had never seen anything like it.
The family was also pressured about a DNR. Jenna refused to sign one unless she was allowed to see her father. She says staff even suggested that signing it might help her get in sooner. That kind of pressure placed families in an impossible position: sign away intervention, and maybe you can see the person you love.
Still, Jenna fought. She requested treatments. She asked for supportive care. She pursued options when James developed ARDS after being ventilated. She worked on a Right to Try effort and obtained approval from two doctors, only to have the pharmacist deny it. She tried to get him transferred. She brought in outside medical voices. She called, documented, researched, pleaded, and fought without sleep.
When Jenna was finally allowed to see him on January 28, she knew something was wrong. She walked into the room, looked at the ventilator, and questioned how long it had not been properly ventilating her father. Respiratory therapy was called, and the machine eventually had to be changed. Jenna was left with the horrifying question of how long her father had been lying there while the machine meant to keep him alive was failing him.
In that room, Jenna brought back the humanity that had been stripped from him. She played music for him, including James Taylor and Van Morrison. She sang to him. She prayed with him. She massaged him. She loved him as her father, not as a chart, not as a diagnosis, and not as a protocol.
On January 30, 2022, James went into cardiac arrest. They brought him back once. Jenna and her husband rushed toward the hospital, but before they could arrive, the call came that he had coded again and could not be revived.
They got there minutes too late.
The grief that followed was not ordinary grief. Jenna describes it as a nightmare that shattered her life. She was diagnosed with severe PTSD and complicated grief. She could not leave her bedroom for more than a month. She lost her ability to work for a time and had to let go of a wellness shop she had poured herself into. Her mother, who survived her own hospitalization, had to relearn how to walk while also waking up to the devastating news that the love of her life since childhood was gone.
James’s absence is everywhere — in family traditions, camping memories, gardens, bonfires, lake life, and the milestones he should have been there to see. He should have celebrated his fiftieth wedding anniversary. He should have grown old with his wife. He should still be here.
James Hadley was not killed by a lack of love or advocacy. His family fought for him. His daughter was a nurse and his legal POA. She knew what to ask, what to refuse, and what dangers to watch for. But even that was not enough inside a system that ignored families, overrode consent, punished the unvaccinated, pushed ventilation, denied individualized treatment, and treated death as an acceptable outcome of a rigid protocol.
This is why Betrayal Project USA exists.
Betrayal Project USA is giving victims and families a platform to tell the truth, preserve the historical record, seek reform and accountability, and build a community of support for those who suffered institutional betrayal. Our organization, board members, and volunteer force are comprised of victims, mostly widows, widowers, survivors, and grieving family members who experienced similar harm and refuse to let these stories be erased.
What happened to James Hadley and so many others are egregious crimes against humanity that must be stopped. We are documenting these stories, exposing the patterns, demanding accountability, and standing with families who were told to stay quiet while their loved ones were taken from them.
If you or a loved one has been harmed by COVID-related protocols, shots, or policies, please document your story at betrayalprojectusa.org. Share James’s story. Share all of these stories. Every voice helps break the silence, honor the victims, and move this nation toward truth, justice, and reform.
