A 74-year-old COVID-19 patient died Monday at Memorial Hermann Sugar Land, relatives said, after his family took legal action to force doctors to administer his prescribed dose of the controversial anti-parasite drug ivermectin, which is not proven to treat the virus.
Pete Lopez, a Vietnam War combat veteran, was the “backbone” of his family, said his granddaughter Gabrielle Snider. He raised four children as a successful business owner and was energetic in his old age, she said.
“We’re not OK right now,” Snider said. “Right now, I’m more angry than anything, but it’s not a pain I wish on anybody.”
In early August, Lopez visited his primary care doctor at Houston’s VA Medical Center, where he tested positive for COVID and was prescribed ivermectin and other antibiotics, Snider said. The next day, he went to Memorial Hermann Sugar Land with COVID symptoms, but the hospital refused to administer his prescription for ivermectin against the family’s request, she said.
A Fort Bend County judge on Friday issued a court order for the hospital to give him the drug, according to court records. Snider said doctors never did. The family’s lawyer, Ralph Lorigo, could not immediately be reached for comment. Snider declined to comment on whether her grandfather was vaccinated.
“We were not trying to dictate a doctor’s orders,” Snider said during an interview Tuesday outside the hospital, where about 15 people gathered to protest Memorial Hermann’s decision. “We were simply trying to enforce a prescription he already had.”
The VA Medical Center is reviewing the case but is “unable to comment on the care of the individual veteran due to patient privacy,” said Houston VA spokesperson Maureen Dyman.
Memorial Hermann filed an objection to the judge’s order on Friday, but it’s unclear whether the hospital filed an appeal. The hospital would not comment on details of the legal case or the man’s treatment. Instead, Memorial Hermann issued a lengthy statement in response to the family’s allegations:
“It is important to note that physicians diagnose and treat patients consistent with best medical practices,” the statement reads. “It is the role of medical providers to determine safe and effective courses of treatment for patients, and then assist patients and their loved ones, if applicable, to make informed decisions about treatment options available to them… Outside of ongoing clinical trials, the FDA, CDC and WHO discourage the use of ivermectin as a treatment for COVID-19.”
Ivermectin is a medication only approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat certain parasitic infections, head lice or skin conditions such as rosacea. An over-the-counter version for animals treats heartworm disease. Researchers are currently analyzing the drug’s benefits in COVID patients, but so far, there are no meaningful studies that show the drug effectively prevents or treats the virus at any stage of the illness, experts say.
The drug has also led to severe illness in some people who ingest it to treat the virus, according to the FDA and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Outpatient ivermectin prescriptions have seen a rapid increase nationwide since mid-July, with a simultaneous increase in calls to poison control centers about ivermectin exposure, the CDC reports.
The Southeast Texas Poison Center in Galveston reports a 117 percent increase in the number of daily calls about ivermectin exposure, according Dr. Mark Winter, the center’s director. About 40 percent of the calls are tied to the drug intended for human consumption, he said. Symptoms include vomiting, diarrhea and, in rare cases, hallucinations.
Winter, who is board certified in toxicology, said side effects may be caused by the drug’s interaction with other prescribed medications.
“We’re still collecting data on the long-term toxicity of ivermectin,” he said. “Now, ivermectin has been out in use in humans for decades. And we know what ivermectin will do with the one-time dose that were taking orally to treat worm infestation in humans. But for some of these websites that you can go to, they’re recommending taking the ivermectin every day for up to a month … that hasn’t been studied.”
A March study in the Journal of the American Medical Association — a randomized trial among 400 patients — found that ivermectin did not significantly improve the time in which participants showed COVID symptoms.
Outside the hospital on Tuesday, Snider was surrounded by people advocating for the use of ivermectin. They held signs that read, “ivermectin saves lives” and “our choice matters.” One woman, who declined to be identified, said she believed it works after listening to multiple virologists and Dr. Stella Immanuel, who triggered a warning from the Texas Medical Board last year after publicly touting hydroxychloroquine as a cure for COVID.
Randomized trials have shown hydroxychloroquine is ineffective against the virus.
Among the protesters was Jennifer Bridges, a former Houston Methodist nurse who lost her job after she refused to abide by the hospital’s vaccine mandate for employees. She drew attention to Tuesday’s gathering when she learned of Snider’s predicament.
“This is horrible,” she said. “The hospitals won’t treat properly. They won’t give the proper drugs that have been proven to work. Why would you not do it? Nothing has been proven to be bad.”
Dr. Josh Septimus, a Houston Methodist primary care doctor and medical director of the hospital’s same-day clinics, said he and his staff have been “flooded” by requests for ivermectin. As a policy, his clinics do not prescribe it because of safety concerns and a lack of reliable data.
He attributed its rise to people listening to right-wing media and those who purport to be experts. He also pointed to the broader polarized environment over the virus.
“It’s deflating,” he said. “And it’s also deflating when those same people will often decline the vaccine.”
julian.gill@chron.com
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