Name of Victim: Joyce Starling
Age of Victim: 90
Sex of Victim: Female
What Is This Testimony About: Other Institutional Betrayal
State: NC
Name of Hospital(s), Nursing Home(s), Hospice, or other facilities victim was admitted to (List all that Apply): Wayne UNC, Hospice Facility in Goldsboro, NC
Did the victim survive? No
Date of Death: 01/16/2020
Contact Name: Vanessa Starling
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: Wayne
Date Admitted: 12/24/2019
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? No
Was the victim or family pressured to sign a Do Not Resuscitate? Yes
Was the victim physically restrained? No
Was the victim deprived of food and water while in the hospital? Yes
Was victim placed on a ventilator? No
What medications were administered to the victim by doctors or hospital staff?
Ativan, Haldol, Morphine, Oxygen, Pain Killers, Pantoprazole, Prednisone, quetiapine, digoxin, ampicillin, Dulcolax, diltiazem,
What medications did the hospital explicitly refuse to administer to the victim? Tylenol
Has this incident been reported to any agency such as VAERS, HHS, JACHO, CMS, Medical Board or others? CMS, HHS, APS, NC State Attorney and AG
Place of Death: Hospital
Would you be interested in participating in podcasts or other media? Yes
When Hospice Became the End Before Her Time: Joyce Starling’s Story
Joyce Starling was ninety years old, but she was not “dying.” She was a mother, a grandmother, a woman who still had presence, awareness, and a life that mattered. Her daughters, Vanessa and Tammy, believed they were doing what loving families are told to do—trusting the medical system, trusting hospice, trusting that the word care still meant protection, comfort, and dignity.
What followed was not care. It was betrayal.
In their interview, Vanessa and Tammy recount how quickly their mother’s condition changed once she was placed under hospice supervision. Decisions were made without transparency. Medications were introduced that Joyce did not need and could not consent to. Food and water—basic human necessities—were withheld. Sedatives and powerful drugs replaced conversation, nourishment, and presence. Their mother became increasingly unreachable, not because her life was naturally ending, but because it was being chemically silenced.
The sisters describe the growing unease they felt as Joyce slipped away faster than anyone expected or understood. Questions were met with vague answers. Concerns were dismissed. Advocacy was treated as interference. What should have been a time of family closeness and meaningful goodbyes instead became a blur of confusion, fear, and mounting grief. Hospice, the very institution entrusted to protect Joyce at the end of her life, became the mechanism through which her death was hastened.
There was no emergency. No crisis demanding such aggressive sedation. No clear explanation for the rapid withdrawal of nutrition and hydration. Yet Joyce’s decline was swift and irreversible. Vanessa and Tammy watched their mother fade—not from age, not from illness—but from a system that had quietly decided her life no longer required safeguarding.
This is what makes their story so devastating. Joyce was not treated as a person with inherent worth. She was treated as a process to be managed, a body to be subdued, a timeline to be shortened. Her daughters were left carrying not only the pain of losing their mother, but the unbearable weight of knowing that her death did not have to happen this way.
Vanessa and Tammy speak not with bitterness, but with clarity and resolve. They understand now that what happened to their mother is not an isolated incident. It is part of a larger pattern of medical and institutional betrayal—where families are sidelined, consent is blurred or ignored, and end-of-life “care” crosses a dangerous line into euthanasia.
Joyce Starling deserved dignity. She deserved honesty. She deserved time. Her story stands as a warning and a call to conscience: when systems abandon their duty to protect the vulnerable, silence becomes lethal.
Betrayal Project USA exists to ensure stories like Joyce’s are not buried, dismissed, or forgotten. We provide a platform for families harmed by medical and institutional betrayal—whether in hospitals, nursing homes, hospice, or other care settings—to tell the truth, seek accountability, and connect with others who understand this unique grief.
Our organization is led by victims, survivors, widows, widowers, and families who have walked this same painful road. We are documenting these injustices, demanding reform, and building a community of support so no family has to face this alone.
If you or a loved one has been harmed by medical or institutional betrayal, we urge you to tell your story.
Visit betrayalprojectusa.org to document what happened and help expose practices that must be stopped.
Truth matters. Accountability matters. And every life—at every age—has value.
