Name of Victim: Shannon McDonald
Age of Victim: 43
Sex of Victim: Female
What Is This Testimony About: Hospital Protocol Death
State: AL
Did the victim survive? No
Date of Death: 09/26/2021
Name of Hospital(s) victim was admitted to (List All that apply):MARSHALL MEDICAL NORTH AL
Contact Name: Patricia M Jordan
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: MARSHALL
Date Admitted: 08/25/2021
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? No
Was victim placed on a ventilator? Yes
What medications were administered to the victim by doctors or hospital staff? Remdesivir
What medications did the hospital explicitly refuse to administer to the victim? Ivermectin
Has this incident been reported to any agency such as VAERS, HHS, JACHO, Medical Board or others? WHEN I FIRST TRIED TO REPORT ,NOBODY WOULD HELP ME, THEY TOLD ME IT WAS PRODICAL..THEN I WAS TOLD MY TIME HAD RUN OUT,,SHE AND HER DAD BRICE JORDAN WERE FIRE FIGHTERS
Place of Death: Hospital
Would you be interested in participating in podcasts or other media? Yes
A First Responder’s Final Goodbye: “Mom, I Love You”
Shannon McDonald spent her life answering calls for help. A trained first responder and firefighter, she could drive the engines, operate multiple pumper trucks, manage water pressure, and control traffic at dangerous scenes. When the whistle sounded, Patricia Jordan says her daughter was gone, ready to serve. Shannon was also a mechanic, plumber, carpenter, builder, and gifted cook. If she did not know how to do something, she learned. She was funny, generous, and always willing to help. To Patricia, she was more than a daughter: “She was my lifeline.”
In August 2021, Shannon contracted COVID after responding to a fire call. Her lungs burned and the pain became so severe that she called an ambulance herself. Patricia begged her not to go, but Shannon believed the hospital would help her. She was admitted to Marshall Medical Center North on August 25, one day after her father, Brice Jordan, entered the same hospital.
Shannon was only 43. She was placed in isolation in the ICU, just around the corner from her father’s room, although Patricia initially did not know they were so close. Hospital rules kept the family away until Patricia—already fighting for access to her dying husband—confronted administrators and insisted on seeing her daughter.
When Patricia finally reached Shannon, she was on a BiPAP machine and could barely speak. Patricia says the mask had a hole that staff had sealed with tape. At one point Shannon vomited into it, aspirated, and tore it from her face while no one was there watching. Her back hurt so badly that Patricia rubbed it for her. Talking exhausted Shannon, so mother and daughter wrote notes to each other while Shannon rested between words. Patricia still has those last handwritten pages. On one, Shannon wrote, “I just want to breathe.”
Shannon begged her mother to get her out. Patricia called hospitals throughout the area, but none would accept her. She pleaded with staff not to administer remdesivir and requested ivermectin. According to Patricia and the intake record, ivermectin was refused; Patricia’s medical records show that Shannon received five days of remdesivir. Patricia also questioned why Shannon was not helped to sit up, move, or receive other supportive measures she associated with prior pneumonia care. Later, Shannon was tube-fed, and Patricia says she complained that staff fed her and then laid her flat.
Throughout the hospitalization, Patricia says a doctor and nurse repeatedly pressured her to sign a do-not-resuscitate order. She refused. Signing it felt to her like participating in her daughter’s death. “Save her if you can,” she told them. “Just save her.” She also had to fight for Shannon’s children to be allowed to see their mother.
On September 3, while Shannon was hospitalized, her first grandchild was born. By then, Shannon could see her only in a photograph. Soon afterward, Shannon called Patricia with the words no mother should ever hear: “Mom, they’re putting me on a ventilator. I love you.” They both understood the call might be their final goodbye. Shannon remained on the ventilator for roughly two weeks.
On the morning of September 26, Patricia called as usual and was told Shannon seemed to be improving. When Shannon died later that day, the hospital did not call Patricia, despite having her number and instructions to contact her. Instead, staff called Shannon’s daughter—a new mother with a newborn—and she had to tell her grandmother that Shannon was gone.
Brice had died 20 days earlier. Patricia had asked the funeral home to hold him while she waited and prayed for their daughter. She ultimately endured what no wife or mother should face: a double funeral for her husband of 54 years and her 43-year-old daughter. Shannon’s children and grandchildren must now live every milestone without her. Her granddaughter will know the grandmother she never met only through photographs and stories.
Patricia has boxes of medical records and years of unanswered questions. She tried government agencies, a congressman, the media, and attorneys, but says doors repeatedly closed. She tells Shannon’s story because her daughter’s courage, service, and humanity must not be reduced to a hospital statistic. The isolation, denial of a requested treatment, remdesivir use, pressure for a DNR, barriers to family advocacy, and escalation to ventilation form an account of institutional betrayal that demands investigation, reform, and accountability. Egregious violations of human dignity under the guise of public health must never be permitted again.
Betrayal Project USA is giving victims a platform to tell their stories, seeking reform and accountability, and building a community of support for those who suffered institutional betrayal. Our organization, board, and volunteer force are composed of victims—mostly widows, widowers, and survivors—who experienced similar harm. If you or a loved one has been harmed by COVID-related protocols, shots, or policies, please document your story at betrayalprojectusa.org.
