A Virginia hospital was found in contempt of court Monday for blocking an ICU patient’s right to allow her doctor to try the drug Ivermectin in a last attempt to treat her case of COVID-19.
The patient, Kathleen Davies, 63, has been ill with COVID since October and was placed on a ventilator to help her breathe in early November. Her family has been determined in their efforts to try to do everything medically possible to save her life.
The Fauquier Times reports Loudoun County Circuit Court Judge James Fisher found Fauquier Hospital in Warrenton in contempt of court 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.”
Davies’ son, Christopher, a radiologic technologist at the same hospital, and her husband Donald had been fighting a legal battle lasting over a week with the hospital for her right to try Ivermectin in what the newspaper described as a last attempt to save her life.
The FDA has not approved Ivermectin to treat COVID, and Christopher Davies told the paper he doesn’t know whether or not Ivermectin will help his mother, but he wants the opportunity to try the drug as a “hail Mary” effort to save her. He said the hospital had tried every other treatment, but his family should be able to try the drug.
“I get it. The doctors at the hospital are afraid. This has become politically charged. I’m not trying to go after the hospital. I just want them to use it in hopes that it will help,” Davies told the Times.
“They believe it’s a fight between the rights of the hospital and the rights of citizens. They feel their rights trump her rights,” he said.
According to a court document obtained by The Daily Wire, the court had ruled on Dec. 6 that Kathleen Davies had the right under Virginia law to try Ivermectin or any other order and prescription provided by Dr. Martha Maturi — the doctor retained by the Davies family who had prescribed Ivermectin — regardless of her employment with the hospital.
But when Chris and a nurse went to give his mom the Ivermectin on the night of Dec. 7, the hospital refused to allow him in the ICU with the drug.
The hospital told Chris they had filed for another emergency hearing on the matter which was scheduled for Dec. 8, according to The Daily Wire.
On Dec. 9, Judge Fisher considered the hospital’s arguments, but ruled in favor of the Davies family, writing, “The specific provisions of the Health Care Decisions Act of Virginia control the rights of the parties and sets out a statutorily specific authority of the court to rule…. An agent operating under an Advance Medical Directive, as is the case here, is authorized with ‘full power to make health care decisions for {the patient}. The agent may consent to … medication,” and may “hire and fire {the patients} health care providers… That is what happened here,” according to the Times.
Even though the judge signed an order that Davies’ doctor had the right to administer Ivermectin under Virginia law, the hospital had still not complied by the time of the contempt hearing which was scheduled for Monday, Dec. 13.
The court then ruled the drug must be given to Davies by her doctor by 9:00 pm Eastern Monday night or the hospital would have to pay “$10,000 per day, retroactive to the date of the court’s injunction order filing (Dec. 9) and shall continue to pay such sums until the ordered relief has been accomplished,” the Times reported.
The court’s order also said the medical facility could avoid further fines if they obeyed.
Christopher Davies told the paper a hospital nurse finally gave his mother the first dose of Ivermectin at 8:45 p.m. Eastern time on Monday.
As of this writing, there has been no further word on Kathleen Davies’ condition.
As CBN News reported last week, lawsuits have been mounting against hospitals that ban Ivermectin.
Although major physicians associations oppose its use, a number of doctors nationwide believe the drug is a potentially effective treatment for COVID-19 and they prescribe it within the confines of their own offices.
Doctors who work in hospitals, however, must abide by their hospital administration’s policies.
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