In what is now a familiar story, another family is suing a hospital in Florida to allow ivermectin to be administered to a relative in Intensive Care. TrialSite has chronicled legal matter after matter dealing with hospitals not budging on rigid federal treatment protocols. The Florida Times Union reports that Daniel Pisano, a 71-year-old man, was given a 5 percent chance of survival when he was hospitalized in the intensive care unit at The Mayo Clinic in Jacksonville, Florida. Pisano was admitted to the hospital on December 11th with Covid-19 and was put in the ICU on December 18th. On December 22nd Pisano was intubated and put on a ventilator.

The Pisano family is now suing the Mayo Clinic to allow Jacksonville-based Dr. Ed Balbona to administer ivermectin to Daniel. Balbona is a doctor of internal medicine at Baptist Medical Center in Jacksonville. As TrialSite News has pointed out many times, ivermectin is controversial because of the drug’s status with the Food and Drug Administration. The agency continually recommends “more research” into the drug.

After Pisano was intubated, the family consulted with Dr. Balbona who then prescribed ivermectin, but the Mayo Clinic refused to administer the drug. The hospital wouldn’t allow Balbona to treat Pisano, noting that Balbona is not board-certified, not on staff at the Mayo Clinic, and is not permitted to practice medicine at their facility because it has “closed staff,” and all doctors there are Mayo employees.

FirstCoastNews reports at a December 30th emergency hearing, the attorney for the Mayo Clinic said the petition by the Pisano family is a “very difficult situation” but forcing the hospital to use a treatment not approved by its doctors would “set a dangerous precedent.” FirstCoastNews points out that in September, a judge in Florida ordered Baptist Medical Center South, also in Jacksonville, to administer ivermectin to a 70-year-old woman. So, administering the controversial drug in a Florida hospital is not without precedent.

The family’s emergency petition was denied by Circuit Court Judge Marianne Aho, who said in her ruling that the Pisano’s family lawyers have not proven “potential benefit to the patient of administering the requested treatment protocol will outweigh the potential harm to the patient of administering the protocol.” The judge also cited the fact Dr. Balbona is not on staff at the Mayo Clinic. The Pisano family lawyers then filed a motion for a rehearing and asked Judge Aho to recuse herself. Aho agreed because she had worked for one of the law firms representing the hospital.

TrialSite News has reported extensively on lawsuits against hospitals to allow ivermectin to be administered, including one in Illinois where a patient walked out of a hospital after the family sued to use ivermectin. In that case, the judge stated, “the benefits could outweigh the risks.” Often called a “horse drug,” TrialSite has covered the difference between the use of ivermectin in animals and in humans. If ivermectin is used and “the benefits could outweigh the risks,” why is the medical establishment so hesitant?