The family of a Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office deputy who has been hospitalized for over a month for COVID-19 and complications from the virus is suing Texas Health Huguley Hospital to permit an outside doctor to administer Ivermectin as a treatment.

Jason Jones, 48, has been with the department for 12 out of his 28 years in law enforcement, according to a GoFundMe page created for him and his family. He has been hospitalized at Texas Health Huguley in Fort Worth since Sept. 28 after being diagnosed with COVID-19.

Jones’ wife, Erin, told KXAS-TV that she’s on a mission to save her husband’s life. At the time the GoFundMe was created on Oct. 14, Jones was on a ventilator in the ICU, and he remains there, according to court documents.

Erin Jones is suing the hospital in order to allow Houston-based Dr. Mary Talley Bowden to prescribe and administer Ivermectin as a treatment for her husband, court documents say.

The hospital has since filed an appeal to pause a trial court’s order issued Nov. 8, which would have granted Bowden temporary privileges at the hospital. The order has been put on hold pending the Texas Second Court of Appeals’ consideration of the case.

Both parties will now have to submit briefs with their arguments by Wednesday, which will then be reviewed by the court.

Texas Health Huguley Hospital said in its appeal that the prescription and administration of Ivermectin to Jones would be medically inappropriate and that Bowden did not examine him before prescribing it, according to court documents.

Ivermectin tablets, which are approved by the Food and Drug Administration at specific doses to treat some parasitic worms in people, have not been authorized or approved by the FDA for preventing or treating COVID-19 in humans or animals, according to the FDA’s website. The FDA said clinical trials are ongoing but currently available data does not show Ivermectin is safe or effective against the virus.

If a health care provider writes an Ivermectin prescription, the FDA advises consumers to get the prescription filled through a legitimate source, such as a pharmacy, and take it exactly as prescribed, according to the administration’s website.

The Texas Poison Center Network has received calls about people taking concentrated doses of the drug intended for deworming large animals such as horses and cows, McClatchy News previously reported. Common side effects in people who have misused the drug are allergic reactions, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and hypotension, the center said.

Misconceptions about Ivermectin’s effectiveness spread when a non-peer-reviewed paper said it could lower COVID-19 death rates by more than 90%, McClatchy News reported. That study was later withdrawn due to reports of plagiarism and alleged data manipulation.

In court testimony, Bowden, an ear, nose and throat specialist, said she has treated over 2,000 COVID patients and has successfully prescribed Ivermectin many times.

Bowden told KXAS-TV that she “didn’t start prescribing Ivermectin just blindly. I checked the FDA study when Ivermectin was originally approved for human use.”

The doctor told the TV station, “I have enough clinical experience to safely say what I am doing is what I should be doing. I think it’s just criminal what these other doctors are not doing and it’s going to go down in history.”

Houston Methodist Hospital on Friday temporarily suspended Bowden’s privileges for spreading false information about COVID-19, the Houston Chronicle reported.

“Dr. Mary Bowden, who recently joined the medical staff at Houston Methodist Hospital, is using her social media accounts to express her personal and political opinions about the COVID-19 vaccine and treatments,” Houston Methodist said in a statement to the Chronicle. “These opinions, which are harmful to the community, do not reflect reliable medical evidence or the values of Houston Methodist, where we have treated more than 25,000 COVID-19 inpatients, and where all our employees and physicians are vaccinated to protect our patients.”

Bowden told the Chronicle that all of her comments “are backed by clinical experience. I have been open seven days a week since the pandemic began, performing over 80,000 COVID tests and treating over 2,000 patients with COVID.”

In court documents, Erin Jones said her husband requested to be treated with Ivermectin prior to being placed on a ventilator in early October. Following a telemedicine consultation with Erin Jones, Bowden wrote a prescription for Ivermectin after Jason Jones did not respond well to current medical treatment and his condition substantially deteriorated, according to the documents.

He and his wife have six children together. The GoFundMe fundraiser titled “Jason Jones and Family,” which was created to help with Jones’ medical expenses and rehabilitation costs, has raised over $6,000 as of Saturday afternoon.

Written by MEGAN CARDONA