Top ICU doctor sues to use 'proven' Covid treatments, including ivermectin

FPI / November 12, 2021

One of the top critical care physicians in the world has filed a lawsuit to allow he and his colleagues to administer ivermectin as part of treating Covid patients.

Dr. Paul Marik, Director of the ICU at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital, filed the lawsuit after being instructed by Sentara Healthcare that he could no longer administer a range of what he says are highly effective Covid-19 treatments to critically ill patients, the Front Line Covid-19 Critical Care Alliance (FLCCC) reported on Nov. 10.

Ivermectin was part of the same treatments Marik says he has successfully used to reduce Covid deaths in the ICU by as much as 50 percent.

"The result of the prohibition has been a sharp increase in patient mortality," the report said. "Dr. Marik can no longer stand by while patients needlessly die without proper treatment."

The complaint filed in the Circuit Court for the City of Norfolk, Virginia states that Sentara Healthcare is “preventing terminally ill COVID patients from exercising their right to choose and to receive safe, potentially life-saving treatment determined to be appropriate for them by their attending physician.”

“This case is about doctors, having the ability to honor their Hippocratic Oath, to follow evidence-based medicine, and to treat our patients the best we know how. Corporations and faceless bureaucrats should not be allowed to interfere with doctor-patient decisions, especially when it can result in harm or death.” said Marik, who is chief of the Division of Pulmonary & Critical Care Medicine at Eastern Virginia Medical School and practices in the Sentara Norfolk General Hospital. “I refuse to watch another patient die from COVID-19 knowing that I was not allowed to give them proven treatments that could have saved their life.”

An accompanying declaration from a Dr. Joseph Varon, a renowned critical care specialist recently recognized by the United Nations for his life-saving work, the Covid treatment protocol developed by Dr. Marik and his colleagues, called the “MATH+ Protocol,” has achieved at least a 50 percent reduction in deaths from the virus in the hospitals where he serves as Chief of Staff.

“The Sentara Healthcare System’s prohibition of the MATH+ protocol is a threat to every doctor and every patient in the U.S.,” said Pierre Kory, president and chief medical officer of the Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance (FLCCC). “We know the protocol is effective. Patients who could have been saved by MATH+ are dying because of the hospital’s baseless restriction. We will continue to see more deaths that could have been prevented until the court takes action and orders the hospital to reverse course.”

The MATH+ protocol has been used all over the world to effectively treat patients with COVID-19, the FLCCC noted, adding that it is generally well-tolerated with no reports of adverse medical events.

In a Sept. 27 memo to employees, Sentara Healthcare System tried to justify prohibiting many of the medications in the MATH+ protocol by claiming it “is not supported in peer-reviewed, published RCTs (Randomized Controlled Trials).”

This claim is demonstrably false, the FLCCC said, adding that peer-reviewed published RCTs do support the use many of the medications Sentara has prohibited, including fluvoxamine and ivermectin.

“The FLCCC stands behind Paul 100 percent,” said Dr. Kory. “We take an oath as doctors to do no harm. I can’t think of a way of doing more harm to a patient than to not administer a treatment that you know can help them. No doctor should be forced to watch their patient die knowing that more could have been done to save them and that is exactly what Sentara is doing.”



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