
Christopher Davies said he was desperate to help his mother who is critically ill with covid-19 and on a ventilator, when he read an article in late November about an Illinois family that turned to a treatment the Food and Drug Administration has strongly recommended against: ivermectin.
Davies found a doctor to administer the anti-parasitic drug that has not been shown to be effective against the coronavirus. But the Virginia hospital where Kathleen Davies, 63, was being treated rejected the idea.
The Davies family sued, joining a growing number of people nationwide seeking access to the controversial treatment that has been bolstered by right-wing conspiracy theorists. This week they became one of the few families to win such a suit.
Kathleen Davies, 63, has received more than a half-dozen doses of ivermectin at the Fauquier Hospital since the Monday ruling by a Fauquier County judge. Davies said the drug has shown no signs of helping his mother yet.
He said the family’s decision wasn’t about politics – they just had nothing left to lose. Kathleen Davies has been on a ventilator for 44 days as of Thursday.
“She was already given a poor prognosis for over a month,” Davies said. “We continue to brace ourselves for the possibility of her dying. It’s not like we expect her to take ivermectin and everything will be good. I wanted to try it as a last-ditch effort.”
Judges in New York, Illinois and other states have made similar rulings, while others have rejected such requests, making it yet another flash point in national controversies over treatments for covid-19.
Fauquier County Circuit Court Judge James P. Fisher did not rule on the efficacy of ivermectin, but said in his opinion that the Davies family can pursue the treatment because of state and federal “Right to Try” laws that allow terminally-ill patients to try unproven cures when all other options are exhausted, among other legal reasoning.
Fauquier Hospital said in a statement patient care is its highest priority and the doctor chosen by the Davies family did not have privileges to practice medicine at the hospital.
“Like other hospitals, Fauquier Health is unable to administer medications to our patients without a valid order from a physician on our medical staff. Doing so would violate standard hospital practice and Virginia law,” the statement read. “That said, our team has worked around the clock to cooperate with the patient’s family and the Court to identify potential viable solutions, including to make a reasonable attempt to transfer the patient’s care to their preferred physician, which has since happened.”
Christopher Davies, 39, said his sister contracted covid-19 in late September, followed by each member of their household. Kathleen Davies got sick next. Christopher Davies fell ill and then his father, Don, was last.
Davies, who is an X-ray technician at the Fauquier Hospital, called 911 on Oct. 9 after both his parents grew gravely ill, he said. They were hospitalized and his mother was intubated in November. Christopher Davies described his mother, a homemaker, as bubbly, a good cook and a devout Catholic.
The Davies family is among those who have turned to the drug out of desperation. The FDA has advised against using it for covid-19, saying it is designed to kill parasites in humans and livestock. The agency said it has received reports of people being sickened by taking the animal version of the drug.
Health officials have not authorized ivermectin as a treatment for covid-19. “Taking large doses of ivermectin is dangerous,” the FDA has said.
“There’s a lot of misinformation around, and you may have heard it’s okay to take large doses of ivermectin. It is not okay,” the agency said on its website. If people overdose on ivermectin, it can cause nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, low blood pressure, itching and hives, dizziness, ataxia, seizures, coma, and even death, it added. “If your health care provider writes you an ivermectin prescription, fill it through a legitimate source such as a pharmacy, and take it exactly as prescribed.”
Earlier this year, before vaccine shots were widely and easily accessible to the public, a judge in New York State said a hospital should let an 80-year-old covid patient be treated with ivermectin, the Buffalo News reported. The patient, who had been on a ventilator and “literally on her death bed,” recovered, the family of the patient said.
Doctors at the time warned that this did not justify using ivermectin for covid-19. While “there are some indications that this drug may have some merit in treating covid-19 . . . we don’t have definitive data yet to show it does help. Presently, it is not recommended as a treatment for Covid-19,” said Thomas A. Russo, an expert on infectious diseases, according to the Buffalo News.
On Sunday, a 52-year-old man died after being diagnosed with covid-19 last month, the York Daily Record reported. His wife had successfully sued a hospital to let an independent medical expert inject her husband with ivermectin early this month. He had received two doses before his death, as a last-ditch effort to save his life.
Last month, a Texas court ruled against a woman seeking legal approval to force a hospital to let her husband be treated with ivermectin, despite acknowledging her “desire to try anything and everything” to save her spouse and her “understandably desperate” state of mind. Also in November, a Florida teacher died of covid-19 after her husband had unsuccessfully sued a hospital to treat her with ivermectin, the Associated Press reported.
Christopher Davies said the family won’t be able to rest until they exhaust all avenues for treatments.
“All people of good will please pray for mom for a miracle,” he said.
(c) 2021, The Washington Post · Justin Jouvenal, Andrew Jeong
{Matzav.com}
What a low hit piece by the Washington Compost.
And taking large doses of Remdesivir is, yes, okay??? Remdesivir has caused reactions that sent millions to the ventilator that ultimately killed them!
This essentially means that (human) Ivermectin works but they’ll claim it doesn’t for as long as they can.
It’s really sickening and sad the way that news and facts are twisted around to suit the narrative. These stories about almost dead COVID patients finally getting the “right” to be treated with ivermectin and then dying anyway are used as part of the “proof” regarding the drug’s efficacy, but the claim for ivermectin’s effectiveness is as an EARLY treatment, not an in-the-grave procedure. The success of this drug in Peru, Mexico, India and other nations was not in hospitals, it was at home with early symptoms or as a prophylactic. So as sad as these stories are, and how indicative they are of the disinterest of government and medical organizations in saving lives versus their own agendas of power and money respectively, they have nothing to say about whether ivermectin works or not.
Then WHY is IVM listed second on the FDA website as a treatment, just below Remdesivir.
I’ve seen ivermectin, given in correct dosage, help time and again. When we had covid it helped us. I hate this fear mongering and inaccurate fact reporting. There were no side effects from ivermectin, if given in correct dosage. It’s a nobel prized medication and billions of people have taken it around the world. Why are they so scared of people taking such a safe medicine! They must have something to lose. People should contact somiech covid helpline for good ways of treating covid if they get sick, obviously our government doesn’t have the answers. Vaccine doesn’t work so let them stop pushing it.
USPS Colluding With The FDA To Hold Packages Containing Ivermectin?
https://www.redvoicemedia.com/2021/12/usps-colluding-with-the-fda-to-hold-packages-containing-ivermectin/