Judge refuses woman’s demand that hospital treat her husband with horse dewormer ivermectin

A Kentucky judge has refused to force doctors to administer a horse deworming drug after a Covid patient’s wife sued the hospital treating him.

Angela Underwood’s husband was brought into an intensive care unit earlier this month, after he became seriously ill with Covid. Ms Underwood, a registered nurse, pressured the Louisville hospital to treat him with ivermectin, the horse deworming drug that has been falsely claimed to be effective against Covid in recent months.

Despite the “treatment” being promoted by some high-profile media and political figures, the Food and Drug Administration, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health have all issued warnings against ivermectin, saying it can “cause serious harm”.

Ms Underwood sued Norton Brownsboro Hospital after it allegedly refused to give the drug to her husband, Lonnie Underwood, without a court order and supervision by an authorised doctor.

“As a registered nurse, I demand my husband be administered ivermectin whether by a Norton physician or another healthcare provider of my choosing including myself if necessary,” read the complaint filed by Ms Underwood, which asked the court to designate its use as “medically indicated”, reports The Washington Post.

Jefferson Circuit Judge Charles Cunningham denied her emergency order request on Wednesday in a ruling that slammed those who have pushed ivermectin as a viable option for Covid treatment. He said the court: “cannot require a hospital to literally take orders from someone who does not routinely issue such orders”, adding that the Kentucky Supreme Court “only allows admission of scientific evidence based on sufficient facts or data”.

“Unfortunately, the Internet has no such rule. It is rife with the ramblings of persons who spout ill-conceived conclusions if not out-right falsehoods,” Judge Cunningham wrote in a damning court order. He continued: “If Plaintiff wants to ask the Court to impose her definition of ‘medically indicated’ rather than the hospital’s, she needs to present the sworn testimony of solid witnesses, espousing solid opinions, based on solid data.”

Kentucky’s new cases of Covid have slightly increased in the past week, and as of Wednesday, almost 2,600 people in the state were hospitalised for the virus, including 644 in ICU beds.

Ms Underwood filed the suit on 9 September in Jefferson County Circuit Court and later amended her complaint to demand her husband be treated with “intravenous vitamin C” as well as ivermectin.

“I am his healthcare advocate,” read her complaint. “The studies and research does show the effectiveness of the medication when given to those patients in the trial.”