Wisconsin’s Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that a hospital could not be forced to administer the deworming drug ivermectin to a COVID-19 patient placed on a ventilator despite demands from the patient’s family.
The 6-1 ruling made by the still conservative-controlled state high court overturned a lower court order that required Aurora Health Care to give John Zingsheim the controversial drug hailed by some as a miracle cure for coronavirus.
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Ivermectin grew in popularity after some commentators hailed the antiparasitic drug as a cure for the global pandemic despite warnings from medical boards, doctors, and the Food and Drug Administration that misusing ivermectin could be harmful to humans and, in some cases, deadly.
The Wisconsin lawsuit was one of dozens filed across the country trying to force hospitals to use the drug, which is commonly used in cattle. Some self-described alternative medicine experts have claimed that self-administering veterinary-grade medicine has treated illnesses.
Zingsheim’s nephew, Allen Gahl, had been authorized to make medical decisions on behalf of his uncle and asked the hospital to use ivermectin on his uncle.
Gahl had obtained a prescription for ivermectin from a retired doctor who had never met or treated his uncle and asked doctors at Aurora Health Care to administer it, which they refused, claiming “the use of ivermectin in the treatment of John Zingsheim’s COVID-19 symptoms does not meet the standard of care for treatment.”
Gahl filed a complaint against the hospital, though none of the information he used to back up his claims came directly from medical professionals, the Associated Press reported.
The Waukesha County Circuit Court ordered the hospital to give Zingsheim the drug but later said Gahl would have to provide the drug himself as well as find a doctor to administer it. Aurora’s attorneys successfully argued to an appeals court that a judge could not force a medical provider to give treatment they had determined to be substandard. The state Supreme Court heard arguments in the case in January.
Three liberals and three conservatives on the bench ruled in favor of Aurora Health Care, with only one conservative judge, Justice Rebecca Bradley, dissenting.
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Last month, liberals flipped the ideological makeup of Wisconsin’s Supreme Court. In what was billed as the most expensive state high court race in U.S. history, Judge Janet Protasiewicz defeated conservative former Justice Daniel Kelly, giving liberals a 4-3 edge through at least 2025, as hot-button topics such as abortion and election laws make their way through the court system.
