As lawsuits over the treatment given to hospitalized COVID patients wage on, one such patient died of her COVID infection on Friday, but her memory will live on as her case continues through the Florida court system.
Tamara Drock, a 47-year-old teacher from Loxahatchee, Fla., spent the last 12 weeks of her life infirmed at Palm Beach Gardens Medical Center as she tried to fight off COVID-19. Drock wanted to be given Ivermectin, the drug that has seen its profile grow on social media and through various right-wing media outlets.
But while the drug is being touted by some as effective in the fight against COVID, its only approved use by the FDA is to treat conditions caused by parasitic worms.
Ryan Drock, Tamara’s husband, brought a lawsuit against the medical facility to try and force doctors there to give Tamara the treatment anyway. While a doctor did agree to administer Ivermectin to Tamara, the Drocks’ attorney Jake Huxtable carried on with the suit anyway, saying the proposed dosage needed to be higher.
The lawsuit was rejected in Palm Beach County by Circuit Judge James Nutt, but Ryan Drock intends to keep pressing. Under Florida law, the suit can be allowed to continue despite Tamara Drock’s death because it plays into a larger debate.
"We don’t know if (the drug) would have saved her life, but it could have," Huxtable told the Palm Beach Post. "Maybe it wouldn’t have done anything, but we’re pursuing the case strictly from a legal perspective. Every person in Florida has a constitutional right to choose what is done with their own body."
Meanwhile, Ryan Drock wants his wife to leave a legacy that gives future patients dealing with COVID more control over their treatment.
"I’m hoping they name a law after her so no one has to go through this," he told the Palm Beach Post. “If she had walked out of the hospital, she could have had the medication.”
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