Texas court sides with Fort Worth hospital — rules it cannot be forced to treat COVID patient with Ivermectin
A Texas appeals court on Thursday ruled in favor of a Fort Worth hospital regarding the use of Ivermectin to treat COVID-19 patients. According to The Washington Post, the lawsuit was filed against the hospital after the wife of a hospitalized COVID patient demanded her husband be treated with the deworming drug.
On Thursday, November 18, Bonnie Sudderth, the chief justice of Texas' appellate court, overturned the ruling that temporarily granted Jones that right to use the drug.
"Judges are not doctors. We are not empowered to decide whether a particular medication should be administered," wrote Bonnie Sudderth, chief justice of the Texas appellate court. "Although we may empathize with a wife's desire to try anything and everything to save her husband, we are bound by the law, and the law, in this case, does not allow judicial intervention."
Jason Jones, 48, was hospitalized at the Texas Health Huguley Hospital in Forth Worth, Texas where he was placed on a ventilator due to complications of COVID-19. His wife, Erin Jones made the demand for her husband to be treated with the drug after it was recommended by Mary Talley Bowden. Although Bowden is not a physician at the hospital, Jones still asked the hospital to proceed.
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The ruling comes months after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) warned against using the drug as a form of treatment for COVID-19. The FDA has also made it clear that the drug has not been proven to be beneficial for COVID-19.
"The FDA has not authorized or approved ivermectin for the treatment or prevention of COVID-19 in people or animals. Ivermectin has not been shown to be safe or effective for these indications," FDA.gov reported. "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."
