TUCSON, Ariz., Dec. 23, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) has filed an amicus brief with the Wisconsin Supreme Court to urge it to reverse a 2-1 appellate decision that cut off judicial review when a hospital denies potentially life-saving treatment to a hospitalized patient. AAPS asks the Wisconsin Supreme Court to reestablish the authority of courts to order a hospital to stop interfering with a widely used, FDA-approved treatment for a hospitalized patient.
In Gahl v. Aurora Health Care, a 2-1 panel of a Wisconsin appellate court ruled for the hospital as it denied a patient access to ivermectin for treating COVID-19, while the patient was deteriorating under the hospital’s protocol. The appellate court reversed the circuit court even though it had heard persuasive evidence from two physicians, one of whom is an expert on ivermectin.
The circuit court ordered the hospital to allow the patient to receive the treatment of his choice as prescribed by a physician he selected. But the appellate court reversed that pro-patient decision and granted the hospital carte blanche to deny medication sought by a hospitalized patient, without judicial intervention for the patient.
In its amicus brief, AAPS argued to the Wisconsin Supreme Court that hospitals are not authorized to practice medicine, and neither are the FDA and other entities that have been interfering with access to ivermectin throughout the COVID pandemic. Courts should not allow hospitals to interfere with the judgment of practicing physicians and the wishes of hospitalized patients to obtain safe medication that is widely available to those outside of a hospital.
“If a hospital can properly deny care to confined patients with safe, approved medications, then such a hospital should disclose that on the front door of its entrance to all before they enter,” wrote AAPS General Counsel Andrew Schlafly in this amicus brief. “Hospitals should not become unaccountable islands of tyranny, wielding unchecked power to withhold or deny care,” he added.
The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) is a national organization representing physicians in all specialties since 1943. Its motto is omnia pro aegroto (everything for the patient).
