Name of Victim: Twila J. Apger
Age of Victim: 84
Sex of Victim: Female
What Is This Testimony About: Other Institutional Betrayal
State: MI
Date of Death: 01/01/2020
Place of Death: Nursing Home
Contact Name: April Donovan
Relationship to Victim: Daughter
Was the victim a military Veteran? No
Was the victim admitted to the hospital? No
Has this incident been reported to any agency such as VAERS, HHS, JACHO, CMS, Medical Board or others? Yes
Did the victim survive? No
Would you be interested in participating in podcasts or other media? Yes
“She Wasn’t Dying — They Made Her Die: The Hospice Death of Twila Apger”
Twila Apger was 84 years old. She was a mother. A woman with a lifetime of memories, relationships, and dignity. She was not a statistic. She was not a burden. She was not “ready to go.”
But in the final chapter of her life, the very system entrusted to care for her instead hastened her death.
Twila’s daughter, April Donovan, trusted that hospice would mean compassion, comfort, and dignity. Like so many families, she believed hospice was about easing suffering — not ending life prematurely. She believed that professionals would protect her mother, not accelerate her decline. Instead, what she witnessed was something deeply troubling: a pattern of heavy sedation, neglect, and decisions made without true transparency or informed consent.
Twila was not admitted to a hospital. She was in a nursing home under hospice care in Michigan. Hospice was supposed to provide supportive, humane end-of-life care. Instead, April watched as powerful medications were administered that left her mother increasingly unresponsive. There were no meaningful discussions about risks. No clear explanation that sedation at those levels could suppress breathing. No true partnership with family.
The shift was swift.
What began as “comfort care” became chemical restraint. Twila, once communicative, became quiet. Then groggy. Then unreachable. When medications such as morphine and other sedatives are layered in escalating doses, breathing slows. Appetite disappears. The body shuts down. Families are told, “This is normal. This is the process.”
But what if the process is being driven?
April’s heartbreak is not just that her mother died on January 1, 2020 — it’s how she died.
Twila passed away in the nursing home under hospice care.
April has since reported what happened to appropriate agencies, searching for accountability.
But like so many families, she was left feeling that no one was truly listening.
What April describes mirrors a pattern seen across countless hospice cases nationwide:
- Rapid escalation of sedation without full disclosure.
- Families pressured to accept “comfort measures” without understanding the implications.
- Diminished communication as patients are rendered unable to advocate for themselves.
- The quiet reframing of decline as “natural,” even when it is medically induced.
It is a softer version of institutional betrayal — quieter than hospital ventilators and isolation wards, but no less devastating. In hospice settings, life can be shortened not by disease alone, but by a cascade of medications that suppress respiration and consciousness under the banner of mercy.
Twila deserved dignity. She deserved honesty. She deserved true informed consent. She deserved to be treated as a human being until her final breath — not managed toward an expedited ending.
Hospice is supposed to mean comfort. But when sedation replaces transparency… when family voices are minimized… when death appears to follow medication schedules more than natural progression… we must ask hard questions.
These are egregious crimes against humanity that must be stopped.
Twila Apger’s life mattered. Her story matters. And April’s courage in speaking out ensures that her mother is not forgotten.
Betrayal Project USA exists for families like April’s. We are a victim-led nonprofit organization dedicated to documenting and exposing institutional and medical betrayal. Our board members and volunteers are largely widows, widowers, and survivors who lived through similar harm. We give victims a platform to tell their stories, preserve the historical record, seek reform and accountability, and build a community of support so that no one walks this path alone.
If you or a loved one has been harmed by COVID-related protocols, medical coercion, or hospice practices that hastened death, we urge you to document your story at betrayalprojectusa.org. Your voice could protect another family.
And if your loved one was harmed in hospice care, we also encourage you to connect with others in Marsha Joiner’s Facebook group “Murdered by Hospice.” There is strength in community. There is clarity in shared experience. And there is power in collective truth.
Twila’s story is one voice but together, our voices form a movement.
We will not be silent. We will not forget. And we will not stop until accountability is achieved.
You can connect with April and join her fight by following April’s Facebook page Justice For Twila Apger
