Hospital finds out - denying prescribed ivermectin to COVID patient grounds for wrongful death suit

Denied treatment that worked

Scott Mantel, the husband of Deborah Bucko has filed suit against Mount Sinai South Nassau Hospital which stopped treating her with ivermectin despite a court order that the hospital administer the prescription and despite the fact that she was significantly" improving with it, The Epoch Times related. Before being given ivermectin, she was treated with what was considered the “standard of care” but it had not proved effective.  Bucko died before her husband could get another court order to force the hospital's hand. 

Immunity?

The hospital attempted to claim immunity under the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act (PREP Act). The ACT protects healthcare workers administering drugs and vaccines during a health emergency. [In February 2020 the ACT was updated to include COVID.]

“There is no refuting that the complaint is a frontal attack on the use of COVID-19 countermeasures as defined by the PREP Act,” lawyers for the hospital system said in a filing. “The complaint expressly implicates conduct encompassed by the PREP Act by alleging a claim for loss that has a causal relationship with the dispensing and administration of covered countermeasures to treat COVID-19. As such, the law requires its dismissal.”

New York Supreme Court Justice Randy Sue Marber denied the hospital's claim of immunity, writing that although the hospital, its employees, and ivermectin were all covered under the PREP Act, the lawsuit wasn't related to the use of ivermectin to treat COVID-19. Instead, it was about the negligent and wrongful act of refusing to administer ivermectin, a medication specifically prescribed to her, despite evidence in the medical records that she saw “significant improvement" with its use.

“Rather, in stunning contrast to South Nassau’s assertions, the complaint alleges, with particularity, that South Nassau ‘acted wrongfully and negligently, by repeatedly refusing to administer ivermectin to ... [the decedent]’ notwithstanding it ‘having been prescribed” ... and ’despite clear evidence in the medical records that ... [the decedent’s] condition showed significant improvement once the ivermectin treatment was initiated,'” the justice said, quoting from the complaint.

Lawsuit may be “model for future litigation”

Mantel's lawyer, Steven M. Warshawsky, hopes the lawsuit "will be a model for future litigation," according to Trialsite News. He elaborated on the lawsuit's purpose, explaining that it is not about the efficacy of ivermectin. The litigation is about the hospital's failure to treat and her “loss of chance”

The case doesn’t hinge on whether ivermectin would have certainly cured Bucko, but rather her “loss of chance,” Warshawsky said. “Where a failure to treat is alleged, the plaintiff simply must show,” he said quoting case law, “that ‘it was probable that some diminution in the chance of survival had occurred.’”

Deborah Bucko is not the only person to have suffered or died because hospitals denied patients ivermectin. He believes they should be held accountable.

Countless numbers of people, like Deborah, suffered and even died for being denied this life-saving medicine. We need to hold the doctors and hospitals accountable, because they ultimately are the ones in whose hands we place our health and lives.