BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) — A man whose name and age match that of a COVID-19 patient named in a lawsuit against Adventist Health to force ivermectin treatment has died, according to an obituary.
Wesley Dean Howard, 66, died Sept. 22, according to Mission Family Mortuary.
17 News has been unable to reach the Howard family.
A lawsuit filed Sept. 20 on behalf of a man with that name said the hospital refused to give him ivermectin despite exhausting all other options. It said he was on a ventilator and “on death’s doorstep.”
The suit said an infectious disease doctor at the hospital researched ivermectin on Sept. 6 and 7 and wrote prescriptions for the drug but the the hospital refused to fill them. The hospital’s chief medical officer told Marcia Howard the drug was not within hospital protocol, according to the filing.
Ivermectin is approved to treat parasitic worms but the U.S. Food and Drug Administration has not authorized its use for treating COVID-19.
A hearing in the case was set for March 22.
