A California woman has become the latest person to request that a judge order the use of ivermectin for COVID-19 treatment.
The Bakersfield woman on Friday filed a complaint in Kern County Superior Court asking that San Joaquin Community Hospital be forced to administer the antiparasitic medication to her 66-year-old husband, who has been in the intensive care unit since Aug. 23. He tested positive for COVID-19 on Aug. 20.
The “complaint for emergency medical declaratory relief” says that a doctor prescribed ivermectin for the man but that the prescriptions were not filled and the Bakersfield hospital’s chief medical officer said the drug was not part of the protocol.
The complaint says the hospital has exhausted its treatment options and that the patient is “literally on death’s doorstep.”
The controversial drug has been promoted for treatment of COVID by Republican lawmakers, conservative talk show hosts and some doctors. So far, there has been one randomized, placebo-controlled trial, whose preliminary results indicate there is no benefit as a COVID treatment.
Ivermectin has been approved for treatment of parasitic worms and head lice, but using it to treat COVID-19 has resulted in overdoses and hospitalizations. Ivermectin toxicity can cause nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, low blood pressure, confusion, seizures and death.
This month, the American Medical Association and two pharmacist groups called for an “immediate end” to the drug’s use outside of research. The Food and Drug Administration issued a warning headlined “Why You Should Not Use Ivermectin to Treat or Prevent COVID-19.”
The Bakersfield case is one of a string filed in recent weeks by patients and their relatives. Among them:
• An Ohio woman on Aug. 20 demanded that her 51-year-old husband be given the treatment. A judge approved the emergency order three days later, but a higher court revoked it on Sept. 6. The physician who prescribed the drug said he didn’t know if it had benefited the patient. The wife said she and her husband were not vaccinated because they did not trust the “experimental” vaccine.
• An Illinois woman on Aug. 30 lost her bid to force a Springfield hospital to give the drug to her 61-year-old husband. The man, who was not vaccinated, contracted COVID-19 in July and ended up on a ventilator and receiving dialysis. His wife told the State Journal-Register that the couple was familiar with the drug because they had given it to their German shepherds for parasites.
• A registered nurse in Kentucky sued on Sept. 9, asking that a Louisville hospital be required to give her 58-year-old husband ivermectin as well as intravenous vitamin C. On Sept. 15, a judge denied her emergency order request.
• A complaint filed Sept. 17 seeks to force a Delaware hospital to use the treatment on a 54-year-old man who has been hospitalized since Sept. 7.
• A hospital in the Chicago suburb of Libertyville fought back in court on Sept. 21 after being ordered to let a COVID-19 patient receive the drug. It said the 68-year-old woman’s heart rate plunged to 28 beats per minute after she received a “mega dose” of the drug, the Chicago Tribune reported.
Dozens of the cases have been handled by a Buffalo, N.Y., attorney, Ralph Lorigo, who says his office every day gets 80 to 150 “requests for information and help” in obtaining ivermectin.
In an ivermectin cause célèbre, a Chicago hospital this month was besieged with calls demanding it give the drug to QAnon adherent Veronica Wolski, 61. After months of social media posts ridiculing vaccines and masks, she revealed in July that she had a prolonged fever, body aches and violent coughing fits — but she said it was just a cold and that she felt better after taking ivermectin. The following month, she was hospitalized.
The hospital did not give Wolski ivermectin, and it is not known if she even requested it. She died on Sept. 13 of COVID-related pneumonia, the Tribune reported.
