LOS ANGELES (CNS) - A Hollywood woman is suing Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, alleging hospital doctors have wrongfully rejected her requests that her 75-year-old mother be given the drug Ivermectin as her health continues to deteriorate due to the coronavirus.
``My mother is on death's doorstep, she has no other options,'' Sylvia Bagdassarian states in an affidavit in support of her Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit filed Friday, asking for a court order that the experimental drug be given to her mother, Maria Rosa Bagdassarian.
She said she has researched cases around the country where hospitals refused to give patients Ivermectin, only to be ordered to do so by the courts. She cites two such cases in which the sick patients recovered and eventually were released from the hospital.
``My research indicates that the risks are infinitesimally small, especially when balanced against her chance of survival without further medical treatment,'' Sylvia Bagdassarian said.
A Cedars-Sinai representative did not immediately reply to a request for comment.
Ivermectin is most commonly given to livestock as an antiparasitic, but some believe it can be safely used for the prevention or treatment of the coronavirus. The drug is not recommended by the FDA.
Maria Bagdassarian tested positive for COVID-19 on Aug. 1 and was admitted that day to Cedars-Sinai, the suit states. She was placed in the intensive care unit and given a high flow oxygen along with steroids, antibiotics and the drug Remdesivir for five days, the suit states.
No improvement was seen in the woman and her condition deteriorated to the point she is now sedated, intubated and on a ventilator as her blood oxygen levels have decreased, the suit states. The hospital's position is that there is nothing further that can be done and that they can only ``hope for the best,'' the suit states.
Sylvia Bagdassarian, as her mother's guardian, has presented a prescription and requested many times that Cedars-Sinai give Ivermectin to her mother, but a hospital doctor responded that the drug was ``not within the hospital protocols and would not help her mother,'' the suit states.
On Aug. 18, the doctor suggested that Sylvia Bagdassarian ``come in and say goodbye to her mother,'' the suit states.
``Based upon my mother's current condition, there is no rational basis for the (Cedars-Sinai) to refuse to administer Ivermectin,'' Sylvia Bagdassarian states in her affidavit. ``For all intents and purposes, it represents her last chance to survive. If she is going to die anyway, then what is the risk in giving her the chance to try Ivermectin?''
Sylvia Bagdassarian offered to sign a waiver absolving the hospital of liability if it administered Ivermectin to her mother, but the doctors and administration still refused, the suit states.