A man given a 5% chance of surviving COVID should be allowed to receive Ivermectin treatments despite hospital policy, according to a lawsuit filed against Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville.
The family of Daniel Pisano, 71, filed an emergency petition to force the hospital to allow an outside doctor to treat him with Ivermectin. The controversial drug is used to treat parasitic diseases like scabies and has had anecdotal success in treating some COVID patients.
Ivermectin is not approved as a treatment for the virus and is strongly opposed by the FDA, the CDC and most professional medical organizations.
At an emergency hearing on Dec. 30, Mayo Clinic attorney Ed McCarthy conceded the deathbed petition of Pisano’s family presents “a very, very difficult situation,” but said requiring the hospital to provide a medical treatment opposed by his doctors would set a dangerous precedent.
“Like every single national and international health organization, [Mayo doctors] have rejected [Ivermectin] as a reasonable course for COVID patients,” McCarthy said, according to a transcript of the hearing. “The legal remedy that they seek, while grounded in good intentions, is asking the Court to substitute its judgment for the medical professionals’ judgment and, frankly, would undermine the integrity of the practice of medicine.”
Pisano was hospitalized with COVID on Dec. 11, admitted to the ICU on Dec. 18, and
placed on a ventilator on Dec. 22. During that period, his family connected with Riverside physician Dr. Ed Balbona, who treats COVID patients with a protocol that includes Ivermectin.
He has prescribed that treatment for Pisano, something his medical surrogates – his wife and son — support. However, Mayo has refused to provide Ivermectin, and will not allow Balbona to do so, noting he is not currently board certified and isn’t permitted to practice at their “closed staff” facility, where all physicians are also Mayo employees.
The case is one of the dozens nationally in which families want to force hospitals to allow Ivermectin treatments and is at least the third in Jacksonville. Many of the cases are under seal.
However, in a September court order obtained by First Coast News, Circuit Judge Bruce Anderson ordered Baptist Medical Center South to grant Dr. Bruce Boros emergency privileges to treat a 70-year-old Orange Park woman with Ivermectin. The order does not indicate when the treatment occurred, but the patient died four days later.
