After judge orders hospital to use experimental Covid-19 treatment, woman recovers
A judge ordered Millard Fillmore Suburban Hospital last week to give a Covid-19 patient an experimental treatment, and her family and attorneys say they believe that saved 80-year-old Judith Smentkiewicz's life.
The drug Ivermectin – a pill sometimes used to treat children with head lice or to rid dogs and cats of worms – is not yet approved by the federal government for use against Covid-19. But Smentkiewicz's son and daughter call it “a miracle drug” in their court papers.
So do her attorneys, Ralph C. Lorigo and Jon F. Minear.
“This lady was on a ventilator, literally on her deathbed, before she was given this drug,” Lorigo told The Buffalo News about Smentkiewicz, a Cheektowaga resident. “As far as we’re concerned, the judge’s order saved this woman’s life.”
Lorigo said one doctor at the hospital allowed the patient to be given the drug, but after she had been given one dose, another doctor at the hospital refused to allow further doses. He said family members went to court to force the hospital to resume treatment with Ivermectin. State Supreme Court Judge Henry J. Nowak sided with them.
Dr. Thomas A. Russo, one of the region’s leading experts on infectious diseases, said he was glad to hear that Smentkiewicz is doing better, but he said people should never jump to conclusions about Ivermectin or any other drug based on one patient’s outcome.
“There are some indications that this drug may have some merit in treating Covid-19 ... Yes, it is possible that it helped this woman,” Russo said. “But the trials and testing are ongoing. We don’t have definitive data yet to show it does help. Presently, it is not recommended as a treatment for Covid-19.”
Russo is the chief of infectious diseases at the University at Buffalo's Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. He has no involvement in the Smentkiewicz case.
The patient’s son, Michael Smentkiewicz, said hospital officials had told him and his sister, Michelle Kulbacki, on Dec. 31 that their mother’s chance of survival – as an 80-year-old Covid-19 patient on a ventilator – was about 20%.
He said doctors at the hospital also told the family that Smentkiewicz would probably be on a ventilator in the Intensive Care Unit for at least a month.
“We did a lot of our own research, we read about Ivermectin ... The results sounded very promising, and we decided we had to try something different,” Michael Smentkiewicz said. “We pressured the doctor in the ICU to give it to her. He finally agreed.”
On Jan. 2, Smentkiewicz was given her first dose of Ivermectin, and according to court papers filed by her family, she made “a complete turnaround.”
“In less than 48 hours, my mother was taken off the ventilator, transferred out of the Intensive Care Unit, sitting up on her own and communicating,” Kulbacki said in a court affidavit.But after her mother was transferred to another hospital wing away from the ICU, doctors in that unit refused to give her any more doses of the drug, and her condition quickly declined, the family said in court papers.
“We were astounded when they refused to give her any more doses,” Michael Smentkiewicz said. “That’s why I called Ralph Lorigo and we took the hospital to court.”
Kaleida Health, which operates the hospital, opposed the family’s request in court. Lorigo said Kaleida attorney Michael J. Roach argued to Judge Nowak that doctors – and not the courts – should be making decisions about medical care.
On Jan. 8, Nowak ordered the hospital to “immediately administer the drug Ivermectin” to Smentkiewicz, court papers show.
“But the judge also told us verbally that Judith’s family doctor would have to write a prescription for Ivermectin, which he did,” Lorigo said. “In 46 years as an attorney, I’ve never seen another case where a family had to get a court order to continue a treatment that had already been started by a hospital.”
Michael P. Hughes, spokesman and chief of staff for Kaleida Health, said the health care company is "aware of this family’s position," but he declined to discuss details because of federal privacy laws and because the case has become "a legal matter."
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