Hamilton County Common Pleas Judge Michael Oster Jr. has reversed on Monday an earlier decision by Butler County Court ordering West Chester Hospital to give a patient ivermectin for Covid-19, pointing that the hospital cannot be forced into administering treatment that hasn’t been approved to treat the disease, NBC News reports.
Citing FDA, CDC and medical associations’ advisories that have warned against using the medication for Covid-19, Judge Oster wrote that there’s no doubt that the medical and scientific communities do not support and believe in the use of ivermectin as an effective treatment for Covid-19.”
He also pointed to other problems with research into using ivermectin to combat the coronavirus, something that was heavily promoted by some doctors and some Republicans, including the withdrawal of a non-peer-reviewed study from a website that posts academic pre-prints.
Butler County Court’s Judge Gregory Howard has previously sided with Julie Smith, the wife of the Covi9-19 patient Jeffrey Smith, who had sued the hospital to force doctors to treat her husband’s infection with ivermectin after all other options were exhausted in a last-ditch effort to keep her husband alive.
Judge Oster wrote that while he’s sympathetic to the plaintiff and understands she wants to do anything to help her husband, public policy does not support allowing physicians to try ‘any’ type of treatment on human beings.
He also stressed that Dr. Fred Wagshul, the pulmonologist unaffiliated with West Chester who prescribed the medication to Smith, could not confirm in court whether the medication’s continued use would benefit Smith although his condition seems to have improved.
The spokeswoman for UC Health, which operates West Chester Hospital, called Oster’s decision positive, underlining that hospitals or clinicians should not be ordered to administer medications and/or therapies, especially unproven ones, against medical advice.
She also underlined that UC Health respects the expertise of its clinicians and appreciates the scientific rigor used to develop treatments, medications and other therapies.
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