Manhattan Judge Rules that Hospital is Not Compelled to Administer Ivermectin to Covid Patient

 

Edited by: TJVNews.com

As various new oral medications that treat the Covid infection continue to hit the market, the controversial drug Ivermectin is once again in the news. According to a report in the New York Post, a judge in Manhattan has ruled that she will not compel a hospital to give a post-Covid patient the drug after the patient’s wife sued for the non-FDA approved treatment.

On January 26th, Erika Quintero-Sherry brought a civil case against Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City which sought an emergency order to have the drug given to her husband. The Post reported that Benjamin Chernyavsky caught the virus last month and has been “on death’s doorstep” according to his wife.

Two days of hearings took place in the case last week which included testimony from two doctors at Mount Sinai Hospital, according to the Post report.

New York Supreme Court Justice Lynn Kotler ruled that the patient’s wife’s request that the drug be administered to her husband would not be granted, based on the testimony of the Mount Sinai doctors, the staff at the hospital, her husband’s treating physician and from the recommendations from the medical community, as was reported by the Post. The judge in the case ruled that the drug was too risky and that Quintero-Sherry had provided “paltry” evidence to the drug’s effectiveness.

The ruling that Judge Kotler provided on Tuesday reads: “Plaintiff would have this court order defendants to administer an unapproved treatment to her husband against defendants’ medical opinion rendered in the independent exercise of their professional judgment. Indeed, the record reveals that if prescribed ivermectin, Mr. Chernyavsky’s condition may very well worsen.”

“The prevailing view in the medical community … is that ivermectin should not be prescribed,” Kotler said, noting that that is the opinion of the FDA, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and many other medical associations, as was reported by the Post.

“Plaintiff’s paltry showing is insufficient to overcome the mountain of evidence showing that ivermectin is not presently safe or effective in the treatment of COVID-19,” Kotler wrote.

Kotler also noted testimony from a Mount Sinai doctor that Chernyavsky was likely no longer infected with COVID-19, but rather “now must recover from the effects the disease has had on his body and organs,” as was reported by the Post.

The statement continued: “Ivermectin has not been shown to be safe nor effective for the treatment or prevention of COVID-19, and the FDA has not authorized or approved this treatment for this use.”

 

 

A statement from a Mount Sinai spokesperson said: “Mount Sinai is committed to providing the highest quality care to all of our patients and uses evidence-based data in our clinical decision-making. We are pleased with the judge’s decision to sustain the decisions of our clinicians to refrain from using ivermectin for treatment of COVID -19.”

“Ivermectin has not been shown to be safe nor effective for the treatment or prevention of COVID-19, and the FDA has not authorized or approved this treatment for this use,” the statement continued.

The patient, Benjamin Chernyavsky, 60, is a father of five children and contracted the virus on January 9th, according to the Post report.  After seeking medical care, he was eventually put into a medically induced coma and also placed on a ventilator. His wife claimed that he had less than a 20 percent chance of survival, according to the Post report.

The FDA said that ivermectin is approved for human use to treat parasitic infections, head lice and some skin conditions,

“The FDA has not authorized or approved ivermectin for use in preventing or treating COVID-19 in humans or animals,” the agency says on its website.