Mid-Michigan Woman Says COVID Lockdowns Accelerated Mother's Decline, Blames Governor Whitmer’s Policies
Daughter says lockdowns led to her mother’s decline
MILLINGTON, Mich. — Jan Hulverson of Tuscola County says Michigan’s COVID-19 lockdown policies, enacted under Governor Gretchen Whitmer, stripped her mother of essential medical care and robbed her family of precious time.
Hulverson’s mother, who had early-stage dementia and other medical conditions, entered assisted living in 2019. She was receiving regular wellness checks to monitor sodium levels, which once dropped so low they mimicked a stroke. But when lockdowns began in March 2020, Jan said the facility was ordered to halt those checks.
“They said they had to stop the wellness checks—they didn’t want to overexpose patients,” Hulverson recalled. “But for my mom, those checks weren’t optional. They were vital.”
Not long after those services were paused, Hulverson said her mother was found in a catatonic state—eyes rolled back, drooling, and unresponsive. She was rushed to the hospital, but even then, Jan wasn’t allowed to be by her side, despite being her mother’s medical power of attorney.
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“She was never the same,” Hulverson said. “Her dementia worsened permanently after that episode.”
Due to COVID-related restrictions, her mother was moved to another facility that Jan had never even been allowed to tour. Jan says isolation, confusion, and inconsistent care marked her mother’s final years. “She called me and said, ‘COVID is killing me, Jan.’ Not the virus, but the loneliness. The isolation.”
Though her mother didn’t die during the initial lockdowns, she passed away in 2022. Jan firmly believes she would still be alive—and in better health—if not for the disruption in care.
“I was robbed of time with my mom,” she said through tears. “And I know I’m not the only one.”
Hulverson is calling on government leaders to admit the damage caused by sweeping emergency orders, many of which were enacted by Whitmer without legislative approval. “She made those decisions herself,” Jan said. “She decided wellness checks would stop. She decided COVID patients would be sent to nursing homes. She is responsible.”
She hopes speaking out now will help prevent similar harm in the future.
“There’s no disease more important than another,” Jan said. “My mom didn’t have COVID. But the response to COVID—that is what stole her time, her dignity, and her health.”
same! my mother in law had a spot they were watching. she’d go in every 3 months., When covid happened, that was all they cared about and they stopped checking it. By the time they got around to actually doing regular medical care…the spot had grown and it was inoperable, untreatable and she died months later. I will never not be angry about it.
This breaks my heart for her. A friend of mine in Michigan's father was ill. He was in the hospital when Covid hit. She was no longer allowed to visit him. He died. Her mother who had been put in a nursing home temporarily because she could not be with Mom and Dad at the same time. Less than a week later her mom died because a Covid patient was put in her mother's room and she was quarantined with a woman who died of Covid after passing the virus to her previously healthy mother. My mom was hospitalized in 2020 for kidney failure. My sisters, my brother and I each had a chance to spend a day with her in the hospital before she came home on hospice. We lost her November 19, 2020. I returned to KY the next morning to get more clothes and pick up a prescription from my pharmacy. I picked up the prescription on Monday morning and headed back to MI from there. I was with my siblings and our families for Thanksgiving Day to celebrate one last time in our family home. We'd lost my dad in 2018. Too many people were not allowed to see family at a time when seeing family was all they had. Mom could not go to luncheons with retired teachers from her local school district where she taught 26 years, nor could she go to lunch with teachers from Region 10 in Genesee County where she had been their representative to MEA for years. She was locked in her home and saw my sister and her husband daily. I spent a weekend with her in October.