Johnson County man with COVID petitions court after doctors refuse to give him ivermectin
An Olathe man hospitalized with the coronavirus filed an emergency order after the hospital he was admitted into with coronavirus refused to give him the widely used animal deworming medication ivermectin.
Deke Austin Belden and his mother, Sherri Belden, filed the petition for emergency order on Dec. 6 in the Johnson County District Court asking that a judge allow him to take the medication.
The Food and Drug Administration has warned against using ivermectin to treat or prevent COVID-19, noting that consuming it in large quantities can be dangerous.
Ivermectin is approved for humans to treat infections caused by some parasitic worms and head lice, according to the FDA, but has not been approved or authorized to treat or prevent COVID-19 in humans or animals.
At the time of his court filing, Deke Belden, 41, remained hospitalized at Olathe Medical Center. He was previously diagnosed with both COVID and pneumonia and was sedated, court records show.
Belden contracted COVID on Nov. 27, according to the filing, at which point he told his personal physician that he wanted to be treated with ivermectin, which he said his doctor approved.
Belden started taking ivermectin, which was supplied by his mother, according to the filing. He had also taken ivermectin prior to getting COVID.
The same day, Belden was admitted to the ER at the Olathe Medical Center where he asked to be administered ivermectin. Hospital staff refused his request.
Kansas City area doctors have previously warned people away from ivermectin. The health system’s Poison Control Center has received frequent calls about the medication, KU doctors said.
“People don’t want to get a vaccine because they may get a headache or feel bad for a day or two, but if you take ivermectin in the wrong way or if you take too much, you can certainly get toxicity from it, including central nervous system toxicity and things like that,” Dr. Dana Hawkinson, University of Kansas Health System’s medical director of infection prevention and control, said during an August briefing.
“So there are much more and worse side effects with ivermectin,” he added.
Overdosing on ivermectin can cause gastrointestinal problems such as nausea, vomiting and diarrhea, Kansas health officials warned.
Overdoses are also associated with a drop in blood pressure and neurologic effects such as decreased consciousness, confusion, hallucinations, seizures, coma and death. And it can intensify the effects of other drugs, such as barbiturates, that cause central nervous system depression.
Misconceptions about ivermectin spread when a non-peer-reviewed paper said it could lower COVID-19 death rates by more than 90%, McClatchy News previously reported. The study was later taken down from the website due to reports of plagiarism and alleged data manipulation.
According to the court filing, Belden’s parents brought ivermectin to him in the hospital and tried to give him doses of it as approved by his personal physician, who is not affiliated with the hospital.
Hospital staff then intervened and did not let him take the drug, the filing alleges.
Belden and his mother are now asking that a judge approve the use of ivermectin in the hospital for Belden.
They wrote in the filing that they believe ivermectin “may in fact present (Belden) with the last, best chance of survival from this dread disease. But the window of opportunity may be closing, and his best chance of surviving this killer disease may be diminishing by the hour. Hence, he seeks this emergency order.”
The Star’s Lisa Gutierrez contributed to this report.
This story was originally published December 14, 2021 at 7:46 AM.
