Man reportedly died from COVID-19 after hospital rejected court order to treat him with ivermectin

A New York man died on Oct. 3, not long after his family requested hospital staff to administer the anti-parasitic drug ivermectin. The hospital refused to give the 75-year-old COVID-positive patient ivermectin despite a court order directing the hospital to give the patient the drug.

Jeremy L. Carter, a Vietnam veteran, tested positive for COVID-19 on Aug. 28 despite being fully vaccinated against the coronavirus.

"Less than a week later, he was admitted to Rochester General Hospital where doctors started COVID-19 treatment which included Remdesivir and Dexamethasone," WHEC-TV reported, adding that the "treatments did not work and his health continued to deteriorate." Carter was transferred to the ICU and placed on a ventilator on Sept. 20.

Carter's daughter – Jill Alvarado – began researching alternative treatments and discovered ivermectin. The medication, discovered in 1975, is used to treat head lice, scabies, and river blindness (onchocerciasis) in humans, and there have been 4 billion doses administered since 1998. The drug – which was originally introduced as a veterinary drug – is not approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to treat or prevent COVID-19.

Alvarado consulted her father's primary care provider, who wrote him a prescription for ivermectin. However, the Rochester General Hospital refused to administer ivermectin to Carter even though the family said they would sign any waiver relieving the hospital of any liability.

Alvarado sued Rochester Regional Health – the health system that operates the 528-bed hospital – to force the staff to administer ivermectin to her father in dwindling health. The court ruled in Alvarado's favor, but the hospital refused to administer the drug. Rochester Regional Health filed an appeal on Saturday, Oct. 2, and a hearing was scheduled for the following Monday. Carter died on Sunday.

Attorney Ralph Lorigo – who sued Rochester Regional Health on behalf of Carter – questioned why the medical staff refused to administer a last-ditch treatment, "Every case I have is a person in a hospital dying... what is the harm if a hospital is done with its protocol?"

Lorigo said he had filed dozens of lawsuits against health systems in western New York over the past few months for not permitting patients to take ivermectin.

"Each of those times we were successful and those people went home. In this situation we sued, we got a court order and the hospital refused to administer the Ivermectin," the attorney said.

Lorigo said he believes the science, but told the Daily Beast, "While I certainly believe in the medical profession, what I've seen here is that the bottom line is what's trumping what I used to believe was the Hippocratic oath."

In one case, Lorigo successfully argued for court-ordered treatment of ivermectin for an 80-year-old woman from Buffalo. Lorigo touts that within 48 hours of her first dose of ivermectin she was transferred out of the ICU and taken off a ventilator.

In another case from April, a 68-year-old Illinois woman was suffering from a COVID-19 infection and in a coma. The patient's daughter contacted Lorigo for assistance getting the hospital to administer ivermectin. By May, a pro-ivermectin doctor was permitted into the hospital to administer ivermectin to the ailing woman. She later recovered and is out of the hospital.

In February, the National Institute of Health said, "There is insufficient evidence for the COVID-19 Treatment Guidelines Panel to recommend either for or against the use of ivermectin for the treatment of COVID-19. Results from adequately powered, well-designed, and well-conducted clinical trials are needed to provide more specific, evidence-based guidance on the role of ivermectin in the treatment of COVID-19."