Michigan case
Earlier this month, Michigan's Court of Appeals decided not to order an Ann Arbor hospital to administer IVM to a man in intensive care with late stage COVID. It affirmed the decision from the Washtenaw County Trial Court denying an emergency order directing St. Joseph Mercy Hospital in Ann Arbor to administer IVM. The patient, a 68-year-old man, was admitted to the hospital on Nov. 2 and was transferred to an ICD four days later as his condition worsened. He was placed on a ventilator on Nov. 17 and was given remdesivir, steroids and antibiotics. The man's daughter learned of IVM. She found a doctor outside of the hospital who prescribed the drug to her father, but the hospital declined to administer it.
On Nov. 18, the man's daughter filed an emergency injunction in the Washtenaw County trial court requesting the court order the hospital to administer the drug to her father, who was now in critical condition. But after an emergency hearing the same day the court denied the woman's request. She appealed the decision, sending the case to the Michigan Court of Appeals which expedited hearing the case due to its nature, but lost there. The court wrote the plaintiff failed to show "irreparable harm will occur absent issuance of an injunction," adding that the use of the drug is still in debate and that the hospital stated the man was not suffering from COVID-alone. Clearly the court was wrong because there is a strong medical science case that the anti-inflammatory nature of IVM can resolve late stage COVID disease. Apparently, dying unnecessarily is not irreparable harm. Waiting too long, unsurprisingly, leads to major organ problems and failure. IVM should be given as soon as possible upon admission to an ICU.
Conclusions
There is no consistency among all these cases. With one exception. Hospitals invariably fight all attempts by families, attorneys and courts to get IVM to seriously ill COVID patients. They are totally on the side of the government and refuse to acknowledge benefits from IVM use in late stage COVID disease. Like government agencies, hospitals are unwilling to follow medical science, even in the face of failure of government approved protocols for such patients.
While there has been some success with patients recovering because of IVM, in many cases patients die because they get IVM too late or not at an effective dose.
Most judges seem unwilling to see the near certainty of death being outweighed by the possibility that IVM can save a life. They are stubbornly wed to the idea that hospitals and their doctors know what works best, despite the very high death rate for late stage COVID patients put on the normal protocol.
This is what hospitals should be required to give to courts. The statistics on how many COVID patients in an ICU beyond one week die. How many of these were on a ventilator? Courts need to see that hospitals are not using medical actions that save most lives of people suffering with late stage COVID disease. Courts must see use of IVM as offering the possibility of saving lives that is not being done by normal hospital protocols. And that medical science supports use of IVM.
Emergency preparation
More people should think about taking these actions:
1. Have a stock of IVM in your household.
2. Line up an independent physician who does not work for any hospital or health care corporation; even if only available through telemedicine.
3. If a love one gets stricken with late stage COVID, is seriously ill and gets hospitalized and is given the standard care protocol, be prepared to take that person out of the hospital (without hospital approval), to your home where IVM can be administered, preferably with guidance on dosage from a physician that is pro-IVM. This should be considered after just a week or so in an ICU and preferably before being put on a ventilator.
4. This sounds drastic, but staying in the hospital on a ventilator for weeks in an ICU is in almost all cases a death sentence.
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