a judge has ordered ohio hospital to treat an asthmatic ventilated covid patient 51 with ivermectin antiparasite treatment after staff refused to give him it despite a prescription
An Ohio judge has ordered hospital staff to start treating a ventilated COVID-19 patient with Ivermectin, a controversial anti-parasite treatment that is being used in some countries to treat the virus but has been knocked down by the FDA.
Ivermectin has been available in the US to treat lice since the 1970s but some doctors are prescribing it as a COVID therapy after early studies last year claimed it reduced mortality among infected patients.
The CDC and FDA are strongly urging against it, claiming the studies are not up to standard and can't be relied on.
Desperate to save her husband's life, Julie Smith appealed to Butler County Common Pleas asking for a judge to order staff at the hospital where her husband is ventilated to try it on him.
Jeffrey Smith, 51, has been in the ICU at West Chester Hospital in West Chester Township since July 15 and on a ventilator since August 1.
In her lawsuit, his wife described how staff at the hospital had exhausted all other options but to offer her husband the drug, which is used to treat lice and can often be used to de-worm animals in far higher doses.
Despite his chances of survival now standing below 30 percent and despite the fact that Dr. Fred Wagshul, a local pulmonologist, prescribed him Ivermectin, the hospital staff refused to give it to him.
Last week, Judge Gregory Howard sided with Mrs Smith and issued an order telling the hospital it has to give him the drug now.
In her lawsuit, she begged: 'He is on death's doorstep; there is no further COVID-19 treatment protocol to offer to Jeffrey.
Pulmonologist Dr. Fred Wagshul prescribed Smith Ivermectin. He is one of thousands of doctors across America who are going against the CDC's advice to prescribe it to COVID-19 patients. Butler County Common Pleas Judge Gregory Howard sided with him and ordered staff at the hospital to give Smith the drug
'Ms. Smith docs not want to see her husband die, and she is doing everything she can to give him a chance..'
The hospital has not yet responded to the lawsuit or explained why staff were refusing to give him the drug when it had exhausted all other options, as his wife claims.
A spokesman declined to comment when contacted by DailyMail.com on Monday, citing ongoing litigation and HIPAA patient privacy laws.
Ivermectin has been touted as a miracle solution for COVID since preprint paper written in Egypt last year said it could be used to treat the drug.
It has been embraced by doctors in Latin America and in the US, nearly 88,000 prescriptions for it were written in a single week.
Most of the increases have happened in states with low vaccination rates, like Mississippi, where vaccine hesitancy is among the highest in the country.
In her lawsuit, the man's wife pointed to a CHEST pre-print article from last June that said hospitalized COVID-19 patients who were treated with Ivermectin had a lower mortality rate than those who did not.
It studied patients from Broward Health hospitals in Florida between March and May last year and claims that mortality was 15 percent in those who took the drug, versus 25.2 percent in those who didn't.
Doctors already have access to the de-worming drug because it is used in small doses to treat parasitic worm infections in humans, like head lice and scabies, but in the US is more widely used to combat roundworms and other parasites in livestock.
Ivermectin has been available in the US to treat lice since the 1970s but some doctors are prescribing it as a COVID therapy after early studies last year claimed it reduced mortality among infected patients
The CDC is urging people against taking it, claiming there is no proof that it works against COVID, but in cases like Jeffrey Smith's, his wife said she will try a drug that other scientists do believe is effective in order to save his life
Early studies which had given some people encouragement were removed from the sites where they appeared because the authors said they weren't ready for peer review.
And amid a spike in prescriptions for it, the FDA and CDC have warned against it and say there is no proof it can help battle COVID-19 but can cause severe side effects.
Fox News hosts Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity and Laura Ingraham promoted the drug's use as an alternative COVID-19 treatment.
Rand Paul blamed scientists 'deranged' hatred of Trump for not studying ivermectin as a potential COVID treatment despite existing studies that failed to conclude efficacy
Kentucky Senator Rand Paul said on Monday that the drug would never be properly considered because it has been promoted by the right, and the CDC and FDA despite them and former President Donald Trump.
'The hatred for Trump deranged these people so much, that they're unwilling to objectively study it.
'So someone like me that’s in the middle on it, I can’t tell you because they will not study ivermectin.
They will not study hydroxychloroquine without the taint of their hatred for Donald Trump,' he said.
In June, Sen Ron Johnson, a Wisconsin Republican, had his YouTube account suspended for posting a video recommending viewers to take ivermectin and hydroxychloroquine as treatments for the virus.
Last week, Mississippi officials reported that 70 percent of recent poison control calls in the state were because of misuse of the dewormer.
Texas has reported a sharp spike in poison calls as well when compared to last year.
In August 2020, Texas reported two poison control calls related to ivermectin, reported WFAA.
This August, the state received 55 calls, a 27-fold increase.
Additionally, Texas Poison Control recorded 23 ivermectin poisoning cases from January to August 2020, compared to 150 this year - a 552 percent increase.
IVERMECTIN - THE DE-WORMING DRUG THAT EARLY STUDIES SAID WORKED AGAINST COVID BUT WHICH THE CDC WARNS AGAINST
Ivermectin has been available to treat lice since the 1970s but it sprang into focus last April, at the dawn of the pandemic, when doctors associated it with a cheap, fast way to treat COVID.
Early studies, including one by Mandeep Mehra, a cardiologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, suggested that it could lower mortality and reduce viral load in COVID-19 patients.
Mehra also penned a similar study on the benefits of Hydroxychloroquine, the drug Trump said he took when he had COVID that he also claimed worked.
Mehra withdrew her Ivermectin study a few months after it was published. She said that it was not ready for peer review.
Among the problems with it was there was no criteria for treatment with ivermectin.
The FDA approved it to treat parasitic diseases such as River Blindness and roundworm-related issues in humans in 1996, according to JAMA network. A topical version was approved to treat head lice in recent years.
Human doses of ivermectin are usually given in tablets and contain a much smaller amount than for livestock. The latter use is far more common in the United States.
Ivermectin for livestock is widely available in the US and commonly comes in highly concentrated doses.
Overdosing on ivermectin can cause a number of symptoms, including: 'nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, hypotension (low blood pressure), allergic reactions (itching and hives), dizziness, ataxia (problems with balance), seizures, coma and even death,' according to the FDA.
Poison control centers have seen a three-fold increase in the number of calls for ivermectin overdoses.
One case involved an adult drinking an injectable ivermectin formulation intended for cattle and becoming hospitalized for nine days with confusion, drowsiness, hallucinations, rapid breathing and tremors.
Another person bought ivermectin of unknown strength from the internet, took it five times a day for five days, and presented to hospital disoriented and unable to answer questions or follow commands. The symptoms improved after they discontinued use.
The popularity of ivermectin against Covid has drawn comparisons to a hydroxychloroquine, an anti-malarial drug that was particularly favored by conservatives last year, despite no strong evidence of real world efficacy.