The wife of a COVID-stricken man “on death’s doorstep” wants a judge to force a Manhattan hospital to give her husband Ivermectin — a derided treatment not approved by the Food and Drug Administration to combat the virus.
Erika Quintero-Sherry, 48, filed suit against Mount Sinai West claiming that despite her rabbi husband Benjamin Chernyavsky’s doctor recommending the drug, other doctors in the intensive care unit of the 10th Avenue hospital have refused, according to a suit filed Wednesday.
The 60-year-old father of five contracted the virus on Jan. 8 and is now on a ventilator in a medically induced coma. The suit claims he has less than a 20 percent chance of surviving.
“Once my husband went onto the ventilator, I felt like, what do we do now?” Quintero-Sherry told The Post. “Are we going to try something else or are we continuing with the same protocol that isn’t working and just keep him on oxygen?”
“Every day I go to the hospital and it’s just nerve-wracking,” the wife said.
Chernyavsky’s mother, Margaret Franco, 78, told The Post the situation is a “nightmare.”
“It’s a nightmare to see … your son laying there and nothing is being done for him,” Franco said.
“He is having excellent care from the hospital for the rest of his body but not for COVID — which is going to kill him,” Franco said. “And he’s been on the ventilator for 11 days now, and how much longer can he live on the ventilator?”
“To see him suffering and we can’t do anything — it’s absurd,” she said.
Chernyavsky’s daughter, Diane Sherry, 31, said, they “are willing to try” Ivermectin because “the most important thing for us is to do anything to save his life.”
Quintero-Sherry said their 8-year-old son, Daniel, who is extremely close to his father, “is in tremendous distress about this situation.”
Chernyavsky’s treatment under the hospital’s health care protocol has included “steroids, antibiotics, high-flow oxygen, and BiPAP,” the court papers say.
The FDA says Ivermectin is only approved to treat certain parasites in animals and humans — and only at “very specific dosages” for humans — as data shows it’s not effective against COVID-19, according to its website.
Doctors are taking a “wait and see” approach, the suit claims. But, Quintero-Sherry claims they have nothing to lose by treating her husband with the drug, the filing says.
“I cannot give up on him, even if the defendants have,” the court papers say. “There is no reason why the defendants cannot approve or authorize other forms of treatment so long as the benefits outweigh the risks.”
“Mr. Chernyavsky is on death’s doorstep; there is no further COVID-19 treatment protocol for defendants to administer to Mr. Chernyavsky; his family does not want to see him die, and they are doing everything they can to give him a chance,” the court documents claim.
“It’s unfortunate that in our country families have to resort to litigation to get the treatment that could potentially save their loved one’s life,” family lawyer, Beth Parlato, told The Post.
