Scott Quiner, an operations manager at a transportation company in Minnesota, became sick with covid-19 in October.
Quiner, 55, who was unvaccinated, was hospitalized the next month, and his case became so severe that he had to be placed on a ventilator, according to court records. For weeks, he remained on the ventilator at Mercy Hospital in Coon Rapids, Minn., a city of 62,000 people about 16 miles north of Minneapolis.
Then, on Jan. 11, hospital officials told Quiner's wife, Anne, that they would be removing him from the ventilator in two days, over her objections.
What followed was a legal case that raised questions over who has the right to make wrenching life-or-death decisions when patients cannot speak for themselves. It also underscored the tensions between people who refuse the coronavirus vaccine and the hospitals that have been filled with patients sick with the virus, a majority of them unvaccinated.
In court papers, Mercy Hospital did not provide specific reasons for why it moved to take Scott Quiner off the ventilator. Allina Health, which oversees the hospital, declined to comment on Scott Quiner's case, citing patient privacy. Anne Quiner did not respond to messages seeking comment.
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On Jan. 12, Anne Quiner pleaded for a lawyer's help on the "Stew Peters Show," a podcast whose host has called coronavirus vaccines "poisonous shots."
She said that aside from her husband's lungs, his organs were functioning and "there was nothing wrong with his brain." Only a couple of days earlier, she said, her husband had opened his eyes "and was more alert."
"I'm thinking, 'Why are you killing him?'" said Anne Quiner, whose husband had made her his health care agent in 2017. Under Minnesota law, that means she has the authority to make medical decisions on his behalf if he is unable to himself.
The day of her podcast appearance, she found a lawyer, Marjorie Holsten, who immediately filed a motion for a restraining order to keep the hospital from taking Scott Quiner off the ventilator.
Judge Jennifer Stanfield, of the 10th Judicial District Court in Anoka County, granted the order. On Jan. 15, Scott Quiner was flown to a hospital in Texas, where, Holsten said, his condition has improved significantly. She declined to identify the hospital.
Holsten said: "He was cognizant until they administered a ton of sedatives. That was when he was put on the ventilator." In Texas, she said Wednesday, "the doctor said he was moving his hand" and "nodding and blinking his eyes in response."
Scott Quiner, who remains on a ventilator, had lost 30 pounds and was described as the "most malnourished patient" a doctor at the Texas hospital had ever seen, Holsten said.
Allina Health said in a statement that it "has great confidence in the exceptional care provided to our patients, which is administered according to evidence-based practices by our talented and compassionate medical teams."
"Allina Health continues to wish the patient and family well," the statement said.
In court papers, lawyers for Mercy Hospital said Scott Quiner's treatment was based "on best available medical science and authority." In a motion, the lawyers asked Stanfield to issue an order that said the hospital had the authority to remove the ventilator.
Specialists were consulted, and the treatment was "in compliance with Mercy's policies and procedures regarding medically nonbeneficial interventions," the lawyers wrote.
Scott Quiner did not specify whether he wanted to be kept alive on machines in his advance directive, a legal document declaring what treatments he does and doesn't want.
On the form, he specified his wishes only under a section that asked about spiritual and religious beliefs.
"Request prayer from family and friends at bedside," he wrote.