A Fairfield Township man with COVID-19 whose wife sued to force West Chester Hospital to treat him with ivermectin has died, according to his attorney.
Jeffrey Smith died Saturday, Sept. 25, said his attorney, Jonathan Davidson of Hamilton. Smith, 51, was diagnosed with COVID-19 in July and was in the intensive care unit at West Chester Hospital.
Ivermectin is an antiparasitic drug that federal regulators and health officials have warned against using in COVID-19 patients. Patients and their families have filed similar suits in at least eight other states, including Kentucky and Indiana, with mixed results, according to Covering COVID-19, a daily newsletter from the Poynter Institute.
In August, Butler County Common Pleas Judge Gregory Howard ordered West Chester Hospital, part of the UC Health network, to treat Jeffrey Smith, 51, with ivermectin. His wife, Julie, asked the court Aug. 20 for an emergency order to use the drug to treat her husband of 24 years.
Last month, another Butler County Common Pleas Court judge, Michael Oster, said the hospital was not required to give Smith ivermectin.
Oster based his ruling on the lack of evidence showing ivermectin is likely to succeed in treating COVID-19, court records show.
Ivermectin is not approved by the Food and Drug Administration for use against the novel coronavirus. The drug is approved for use against some parasitic worms, head lice and some skin conditions.
Interest in the drug has spiked as the delta variant has ravaged the country. That interest has been fueled by endorsements from allies of former President Donald Trump as well as U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisc., plus Fox News personalities Laura Ingraham and Sean Hannity.
While some studies are underway, none of the major medical organizations recommend the drug as a treatment for COVID-19, and the CDC warned reports of poisoning related to the use of ivermectin have increased threefold this year, spiking in July.
Jeffrey Smith tested positive for COVID-19 July 9, was hospitalized and was admitted to the intensive care unit July 15. He was put on the hospital's COVID-19 protocol of the antiviral drug remdesivir along with plasma and steroids. On July 27, "after a period of relative stability," Jeffrey Smith's condition began to decline.
He was sedated and intubated and placed on a ventilator on Aug. 1.
Smith was in a medically induced coma on Aug. 20, according to an affidavit his wife filed with her lawsuit. "My husband is on death's doorstep; he has no other options," she wrote, adding at another point that her husband's chances of survival had "dropped to less than 30%."
Howard gave the go-ahead on Aug. 23 to Dr. Fred Wagshul's prescription of 30 milligrams of ivermectin daily for three weeks, as requested by his wife and over the objections of the hospital. Wagshul is a Dayton, Ohio-area pulmonologist who is listed as a founder of the Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance (FLCCCA), a nonprofit that touts ivermectin as both a preventative and treatment for COVID-19.
Howard's order was in place for 14 days until Oster ruled the hospital couldn't be forced to continue the treatment.
Julie Smith said in the affidavit that her husband was a network engineer for Verizon. "He enjoys fishing, hiking and camping with our family," she said in the affidavit. Services for Jeffrey Smith were held Friday.
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