WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — A West Palm Beach teacher whose husband sued a South Florida hospital after medical staff refused to treat her with ivermectin while she was admitted with COVID-19 has died.
Tamara Drock died Friday, her husband confirmed to WPTV.
Drock, 47, of Loxahatchee, had been a kindergarten teacher for 16 years, most recently at Egret Lake Elementary School.
Her husband, Ryan Drock, recently filed a lawsuit alleging that the staff at Palm Beach Gardens Medical Center refused to treat his wife with ivermectin as he requested after she was admitted to the hospital's intensive care unit in August and treated with the hospital's COVID-19 protocol, which included Remdesivir, steroids and antibodies.
Tamara Drock's condition worsened in September, so she was sedated, intubated and placed on a ventilator.
The lawsuit claimed that Tamara Drock's condition "significantly worsened" upon being admitted to the ICU and that the hospital refused to administer ivermectin to her "despite the minimal downside and side effects."
Ryan Drock filed the lawsuit in the hopes of forcing the hospital to treat her with the antiparasitic drug.
Palm Beach Gardens Medical Center said it had exhausted all further medical treatments.
In his attestation form accompanying the lawsuit, Ryan Drock said he even offered to sign a waiver releasing the hospital from any liability for treating her with ivermectin, writing that his wife's physician had previously prescribed ivermectin for her.
"My wife is on death's doorstep; she has no other options," Drock wrote.
According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, ivermectin shouldn't be used as a treatment against COVID-19 outside of a clinical setting.
Palm Beach County Circuit Judge James Nutt dismissed the petition, ruling that Ryan Drock had no constitutional right "to demand a particular treatment."
Jake Huxtable, an attorney representing the Drock family, told WPTV he has filed an appeal with the Fourth District Court of Appeal.
Huxtable, who told WPTV that he took on the case pro bono, said they intend to move forward with the lawsuit "to potentially help other patients in the same situation in Florida."
"It's the freedom of choice," Huxtable said in a telephone interview with WPTV. "She had the freedom to choose to accept that medical treatment and the court didn't allow her and neither did the hospital."
Tamara Drock leaves behind her husband and their two children, Emily, 14 and Parker, 12.
The family raised more than $10,000 in a GoFundMe campaign to help pay for Tamara Drock's medical bills.
