The widow of Alan Merrill, who co-wrote and sang the original version of the classic track ‘I Love Rock ‘N’ Roll’, has revealed the torturous 15 hours she spent in a New York hospital trying to get her husband transferred to an ICU unit before he sadly passed away from health complications caused by coronavirus.
Merrill passed away on Sunday, aged 69, after contracting COVID-19.
He began to show symptoms two weeks ago but was only admitted to hospital on Saturday when his condition became so severe that he couldn’t breath and when his wife Joanna Lisanti claims he was already dying.
Lisanti has now warned about the ‘lack of preparation’ in the United States to deal with the outbreak as she outlined her experience of Merrill’s treatment in an emotional statement in which she questions whether his death could have been avoided.
Alan Merrill died of coronavirus on Sunday but his wife has suggested that his death may have been avoided if he had been provided a test or had been admitted to hospital earlier
Joanna Lisanti and Alan Merrill in an undated photo. The wife of singer and songwriter Alan Merrill, who died of coronavirus Sunday in New York, is calling attention to the country’s ‘lack of preparation’ by sharing a devastating account of her husband’s final hours
She shared the details of her husband’s tragic last hours at Mount Sinai hospital on social media, describing her frustration at being unable to get a test until Merrill’s condition was too far developed to allow for his successful treatment.
‘There was nothing I could do for Alan except watch him get worse,’ Lisanti wrote as she explained that Merrill first thought he had come down with a cold two weeks ago.
As his condition worsened, the songwriter was refused a coronavirus test as it was believed that despite his age, he was not at risk and his symptoms were not severe.
‘When he finally couldn’t breathe, was so cold he needed piles of blankets on top of him, and couldn’t sleep, I called an ambulance,’ Lisanti continued, explaining how he was brought to Mount Sinai hospital on Saturday.
She learned after a 10-hour wait that Merrill did have coronavirus but only after she called to follow up on the results, Lisanti claims.
R.I.P.: Alan Merrill, who co-wrote and sang the original version of the classic track I Love Rock ‘N’ Roll, passed away on Sunday at age 69 after contracting COVID-19 (pictured 1975)
Glam rock: Merrill, left, along with fellow American and guitarist Jake Hooker and British drummer Paul Varley, formed The Arrows in London in 1974 and the band had several UK chart hit singles including ‘I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll’ in 1975, later made famous by Joan Jett
Alan Merrill’s widow Joanna Lisanti posted an emotional statement to her stepdaughter’s social media in which she detailed his tragic final hours in a New York hospital
Doctors planned to transfer him to an ICU unit for treatment but half a hour later, they called his wife again to say the transfer was canceled because ‘his body was shutting down because his lungs were too destroyed to work’.
‘I asked if he had to die alone, and the doctor said I could come say goodbye,’ Lisanti wrote.
‘When I got to the hospital I had to argue with 3 different security guards to let me go to the ER. I stood my ground and they went back to fetch a nurse who let me in. This was around 11pm.’
Once back inside the hospital, Lisanti was then told that Merrill was looking better and was to be scheduled to be transferred to ICU again but the transfer never came.
‘My husband should have been moved to the place where the experts who were there on the front lines could help him,’ she said.
‘Every 15 minutes I would ask when he was going to be transferred and they would say in the next few minutes, but that never happened. At around 2:30 am, they were finally ready to transfer him upstairs, and I left, exhausted, not willing to battle another group of security guards in ICU.
‘I walked 3 blocks towards home and the doctor called me to say he was gone, his heart and lungs just stopped beating from all the pressure they were under.’
Lisanti has questioned whether Merrill would have survived the virus if he had been tested, admitted to the hospital sooner, or had first been brought to the ICU unit.
‘He was only allowed in the hospital until he was most certainly dying, and then he languished in ER for 14 hours while they tested him for corona, which he obviously had, and struggled to find someone to take him upstairs to ICU,’ she stated.
‘Maybe if he was there, he would have had a fighting chance at least for those 15 hours, but of course we will never know.
‘And now I have to grieve alone in quarantine.’
Merrill, who was born in The Bronx in 1951, had formed The Arrows with fellow American and guitarist Jake Hooker and British drummer Paul Varley after a successful pop career in Japan.
The Arrows had several hit singles in the UK in 1974 and 1975, including ‘Touch Too Much’ and ‘My Last Night With You’ and had their own weekly TV show.
Merrill continued to work as a professional musician, performing with Meat Loaf on multiple occasions and teaming up with Grammy Award-winning producer Rick Derringer for three albums.
He is also survived by son and two daughters.
His daughter Laura shared the news of his death on Facebook, saying that the 69-year-old had been suffering from what he thought was ‘a cold’. But it was the coronavirus and he succumbed to it on Sunday morning.
‘I was given 2 minutes to say my goodbyes before I was rushed out,’ she wrote.
‘He seemed peaceful and as I left was still a glimmer of hope that he wouldn’t be a ticker on the right hand side of the CNN/Fox news screen. I walked 50 blocks home still with hope in my heart….. By the time I got in the doors to my apartment I received the news that he was gone.’
Alan Merrill’s daughter Laura announced the news of his death Sunday on Facebook
His daughter Laura said Alan Merrill had played a gig just a couple of weeks ago and she had taken a portrait photo for his new album. He passed away on Sunday in Mount Sinai hospital
She said he had played a gig just a couple of weeks ago and she had taken a portrait photo for his new album.
She then issued a warning for people to take the pandemic seriously and abide by the social distancing guidelines.
‘People are dying. You don’t think It’ll happen to you or your strong family. It has. Stay home if not for you…for others. For my dad. This thing is real,’ Laura said.
‘We probably won’t be able to mourn him properly with a funeral. I just lost the greatest love of my life and won’t be able to hug anyone because I’ve been exposed and need to self quarantine for two weeks….alone.’
Joan Jett, who famously went on to record ‘I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll’ which became her signature song, posted on Instagram: ‘My thoughts and love go to his family, friends and music community as a whole…… With deep gratitude and sadness, wishing him a safe journey to the other side.’
‘Awful news’: Jett paid tribute to Merrill on Instagram and Twitter ‘with deep gratitude and sadness’. She made Merrill’s song ‘In Love Rock and Roll’ a hit in the 1980s
Covered track: Joan Jett had been in London when she saw The Arrows, fronted by Merrill, perform I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll on television. In 1982 (pictured), she released her version of the song which went to number one in the billboard Hot 100 and made her famous
Jett had been in London when she saw the band The Arrows, fronted by Merrill, perform ‘I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll’ on television.
She recalled that she was ‘blown away by the song that screamed hit to me.’
In 1982, as Joan Jett & the Blackhearts, she released her own cover version that went to number one on the Billboard Hot 100 and made her a star.