A judge in Butler County, Ohio reversed a previous court order forcing a local hospital to treat a COVID patient with ivermectin, a livestock dewormer.
Last month, a judge ordered doctors at West Chester Hospital to give COVID patient Jeffrey Smith, 51, 30mg of ivermectin for three weeks. Smith was admitted to the ICU on July 15. He has been sedated, intubated and on a ventilator since Aug. 1.
Julie Smith, the wife of Jeffery Smith, sued the hospital because they would not treat her husband with ivermectin that was prescribed to him by controversial doctor Fred Wagshul.
Butler County Common Pleas Judge Gregory Howard ruled in favor of Julie Smith last month and her husband was given the doses.
Common Pleas Judge Michael Oster, sided with the hospital on Monday after they appealed Howard’s ruling.
“This Court is not determining if ivermectin will ever be effective and useful as a treatment for COVID-19,” Oster said according to Ohio Capital Journal. “However, based upon the evidence, it has not been shown to be effective at this juncture. The studies that tend to give support to ivermectin have had inconsistent results, limitations to the studies, were open label studies, were of low quality or low certainty, included small sample sizes, various dosing regiments, or have been so riddled with issues that the study was withdrawn,” he wrote.
Smith’s attorneys said they will not appeal Oster’s decision since Jeffery Smith already received 13 days of doses and the hospital said they are ready to take him off the ventilator soon, the Hill reports.
They are crediting ivermectin for his progress. However, Smith’s treating physician argued in court that it was not ivermectin since there is not enough evidence to show it has any effect on COVID patients.
The FDA has advised against the use of ivermectin in humans to treat COVID as some Americans began sucking down tubes of horse paste.
“Animal drugs are often highly concentrated because they are used for large animals like horses and cows, which can weigh a lot more than we do—a ton or more,” the FDA said. “Such high doses can be highly toxic in humans.”
