A hospital in Virginia is facing a large fine for “needlessly interposing requirements that stand in the way of the patient’s desired physician administering investigational drugs as part of the Health Care Decisions Act and the federal and state Right to Try Acts.”
Court documents released on Dec. 13, show Fauquier Hospital in Virginia was being held in contempt of court for failing to allow a physician to administer Ivermectin to a critically ill COVID patient.
Kathleen Davies (63) was diagnosed with COVID in early October and has been on a ventilator in the ICU since Nov. 3. Her husband, Donald Davies, Jr. requested the hospital administer Ivermectin in a last-ditch effort to save her life.
Ivermectin is a drug approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), but has been used off-label since the beginning of the pandemic to treat COVID patients — with much success. Yet, it has been vilified by U.S. health agencies and blocked by hospital administrations who receive financial incentives for prioritizing more dangerous and expensive drugs, like Remdesivir.
Loudoun County Circuit Court Judge James Fisher signed an order on Dec. 9, stating the hospital must comply with the request, but as of the time of the contempt hearing on Dec. 13, the medicine had still not been administered to the patient.
The contempt order stated, “No good reason or good cause was given, other than convenience, for the need of a formal “attending physician” when there are at least three physicians involved in the patient’s care. The relief herein can be accomplished without requiring anyone serving in the role of attending physician.”
According to the contempt order issued Monday night, the hospital must pay $10,000 per day, retroactive to the date of the court’s injunction issued Dec. 9, and shall continue to pay such sums until the ordered relief has been accomplished.
The order continued that the hospital could avoid further fines by immediately providing “for a team approach … that allocates care among physicians in a manner that satisfies their convenience concerns, and which begins medication requested by the patient and her physician Dr. Martha Maturi immediately, but no later than 9 p.m. this evening.”
Davies’ son said an ICU nurse administered Ivermectin to his mother at 8:45 p.m. Monday evening.
The Davies’ family doctor originally prescribed Ivermectin, but Fauquier Hospital refused to administer the drug, citing medical, legal and practical concerns.
After finding anecdotal and clinical evidence online suggesting Ivermectin’s effectiveness in some COVID, Davies’ son emphasized he didn’t know whether Ivermectin would help his mother but wanted the opportunity to try the drug as a “hail Mary” effort to save her.
As The Vault Project previously reported, a top critical care physician filed a lawsuit against another Virginia hospital for its ban on administering life-saving drugs to treat COVID patients.
In his motion, Marik said patients are dying “unnecessarily and unlawfully” as terminally ill COVID patients are being prevented from exercising their right to choose and to receive safe, potentially life-saving treatment determined to be appropriate for them by their attending physician.
