Judge Orders Hospital to Offer Unapproved Drug to COVID Patient

FAUQUIER COUNTY, Va. — A Virginia judge ruled last week that a hospital has no authority to block a family’s choice to be treated for COVID-19 with the controversial drug ivermectin.

The drug is not approved by the Food and Drug Administration to treat COVID-19. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned in an advisory in August that ivermectin has made some patients seriously ill.

Nevertheless, the family of Fauquier County, Virginia, resident Kathy Davies says they might have no other chance to save her life. She was on a ventilator in intensive care at Fauquier Health hospital for more than a month.

Doctors have been preparing the family for the possibility she might not survive.

Her son, Chris Davies, is an X-ray technician at the hospital who heard about some COVID-19 patients finding relief with ivermectin.

The drug is most commonly used to deworm horses and cattle. An advisory on a Food and Drug Administration website says, “There’s a lot of misinformation around, and you may have heard that it’s okay to take large doses of ivermectin. It is not okay.”

When Chris Davies asked doctors at Fauquier Health to try ivermectin on his mother, they refused. He and his father sued to get a court order.

The hospital’s attorneys initially argued against an unapproved treatment.

A statement from the hospital said that “we cannot compel physicians to administer treatment that is against their clinical judgment and is not within the accepted medical standards of care. We believe that we have navigated these complexities as swiftly as possible and have remained in compliance with standard hospital practice, including federal and state regulations, throughout this matter.”

Judge James Fisher agreed with the Davies family. He ordered the hospital to allow the treatment or face a $10,000-a-day fine. 

The hospital staff complied. Kathy Davies received her first ivermectin treatment on Dec. 13.

Tom can be reached at [email protected]