Dr Paul Marik Files Lawsuit Against Hospital System After Being Barred from Administering Safe and Effective COVID-19 Treatments

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Press Release) – Paul Marik, MD, one of the most highly published critical care physicians in the world and the Director of the ICU at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital, was recently told by Sentara Healthcare that he could no longer administer a range of highly effective COVID-19 treatments to critically ill patients—the same treatments he has successfully used to reduce COVID deaths in the ICU by as much as 50%. The result of the prohibition has been a sharp increase in patient mortality. Because Dr. Marik can no longer stand by while patients needlessly die without proper treatment, he has filed a lawsuit to allow him and his colleagues to administer the combination of FDA-approved drugs and other therapies that has saved thousands of critically ill COVID-19 patients in the last 18 months. 

The Complaint filed today in the Circuit Court for the City of Norfolk, Virginia states that Sentara Healthcare is “preventing terminally ill COVID patients from exercising their right to choose and to receive safe, potentially life-saving treatment determined to be appropriate for them by their attending physician.” Under Virginia law, every patient has the right to receive treatment deemed appropriate for them by their attending physician, and terminally ill patients have the right to try investigational medicines that their treating physician recommends. Through its arbitrary prohibition of the COVID-19 treatment protocol developed by Dr. Marik and his colleagues, Sentara is violating the law and unjustly depriving critically ill patients of lifesaving treatment. 

“This case is about doctors, having the ability to honor their Hippocratic Oath, to follow evidence-based medicine, and to treat our patients the best we know how. Corporations and faceless bureaucrats should not be allowed to interfere with doctor-patient decisions, especially when it can result in harm or death." according to Paul Marik, MD, chief, Division of Pulmonary & Critical Care Medicine, Eastern Virginia Medical School, who practices in the Sentara Norfolk General Hospital. “I refuse to watch another patient die from COVID-19 knowing that I was not allowed to give them proven treatments that could have saved their life.” 

According to an accompanying declaration from a renowned critical care specialist recently recognized by the United Nations for his life-saving work, Joseph Varon, MD, the COVID-19 treatment protocol developed by Dr. Marik and his colleagues, called the “MATH+ Protocol,” has achieved at least a 50% reduction in deaths from the virus in the hospitals where he serves as Chief of Staff.

“The Sentara Healthcare System’s prohibition of the MATH+ protocol is a threat to every doctor and every patient in the U.S.,” said Pierre Kory, president and chief medical officer of the Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance (FLCCC). “We know the protocol is effective. Patients who could have been saved by MATH+ are dying because of the hospital’s baseless restriction. We will continue to see more deaths that could have been prevented until the court takes action and orders the hospital to reverse course.” 

The MATH+ protocol has been used all over the world to effectively treat patients with COVID19. It is generally well-tolerated with no reports of adverse medical events. In its September 27 memo to employees, Sentara Healthcare System tried to justify prohibiting many of medications in the MATH+ protocol by claiming it “is not supported in peer-reviewed, published RCTs,” (Randomized Controlled Trials). However, this claim is demonstrably false. Peer-reviewed published RCTs do support the use many of the medications Sentara has prohibited, including fluvoxamine and ivermectin. 

“The FLCCC stands behind Paul 100%,” said Dr. Kory. “We take an oath as doctors to do no harm. I can’t think of a way of doing more harm to a patient than to not administer a treatment that you know can help them. No doctor should be forced to watch their patient die knowing that more could have been done to save them and that is exactly what Sentara is doing.” 

Hospital Files Motion to Dismiss Dr. Paul Marik’s Landmark Case Seeking Emergency Order to Lift Hospital Ban on Lifesaving COVID-19 Medications 

On Friday, November 12, 2021, Sentara Hospital System in Virginia submitted a motion to dismiss the complaint filed against it earlier in the week by Dr. Paul Marik—co-chief medical officer of the FLCCC, tenured professor, and the Director of the Intensive Care Unit at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital. Dr. Marik filed suit seeking a temporary injunction to lift the ban Sentara Healthcare System had placed on a range of highly effective COVID-19 treatments used by Dr. Marik to save critically ill COVID-19 patients. These components, including IV vitamin C, dutasteride, fluvoxamine, finasteride, and ivermectin, had previously been successfully used—with the exception of ivermectin, the use of which Sentara never permitted —to reduce COVID deaths in the ICU by as much as 50 percent. The result of the prohibition has been a sharp increase in mortality at Sentara Norfolk General Hospital.

The hospital’s motion to dismiss Marik’s lawsuit rests on their claim that Dr. Marik has “lack of standing” to bring the lawsuit against the hospital. According to the hospital, “The alleged causes of action against Sentara, if any, reside with the patients in the hospital, not those patients’ attending physician.”

The hospital also asserted in its motion that Virginia’s Advance Directive Statute and/or the Health Care Decisions Act do not “afford the patient the ability to specifically direct or demand his or her course of treatment by a physician or hospital.” But Dr. Marik’s complaint argues that “Sentara’s prohibition of these medicines is causing needless deaths, because it violates patients’ rights to informed consent, and because it contravenes Virginia’s Health Care Decisions Act.”

Under Virginia law, Dr. Marik, as the “attending physician” of his patients in the ICU, is personally and legally responsible for the exercise of professional skill and judgement in determining what a patient under his care receives. Because Dr. Marik is prohibited from giving his patients medications that are potentially lifesaving—and have been demonstrated as such in peer-reviewed studies—he is forced to abandon his professional duty. His actions are regulated by the hospital in such a way that it causes him to violate the rights of his patients.

The hospital’s motion to dismiss or continue the hearing — scheduled for Thursday, November 18 at 1PM ET in Norfolk — also argues that Dr. Marik has lack of standing to bring the lawsuit because he has not been “injuriously affected” by the prohibition of the medications since he himself was not a patient who was denied “the alleged” lifesaving treatment.

Yet, if Dr. Marik were to violate the hospital’s prohibition, he would be subject to revocation of his hospital privileges. Furthermore, though due to Sentara’s prohibition, he is the one who faces legal liability for failing to provide his patients with the medications which, in his professional judgement, had the capacity to save their lives. Therefore, Dr. Marik has solid standing to seek vindication of the rights of his patients.

From October 25-31, 2021, Dr. Marik, in his role as the attending physician in the ICU, cared for seven critically ill patients. Because of the prohibition of the medications he wanted to use to save their lives, he was forced to watch helplessly as each patient grew increasingly ill. He was not permitted to discuss these lifesaving treatments with the patients or their families. In legal precedents cited by Dr. Marik’s legal team, patients have the right to informed consent—including the right to be informed of the existence of alternative treatments, if any.

Four of Dr. Marik’s patients died during that shift in the ICU. The remaining three were also likely to die as well.

Without the court’s immediate intervention, more patients will be denied their rights to choose lifesaving medicines that their attending physician considers appropriate for them. The prohibition of the medicines by Sentara also violates the duty of informed consent and the Commonwealth of Virginia’s ‘Right to Try’ statute.

Dr. Marik is asking the court to immediately restore his and his critically ill patients’ rights to discuss and decide to use FDA-approved, potentially life-saving medicines that are deemed medically necessary.

About Dr Paul Marik

Dr. Paul Marik is one of the world’s leading critical care specialists. He is the author of over 500 published, peer-reviewed articles, eighty book chapters, and four books on critical care topics. His work hav\s been cited more than 44,000 times in peer-reviewed publications. Dr. Marik is a leading global authority on the pathophysiology and treatment of COVID-19—and is arguably the foremost COVID-19 critical care specialist alive. He has never previously been a plaintiff (or a defendant) in a legal proceeding. No patient in decades of practice has ever filed a complaint against him.

About the Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance 

The FLCCC Alliance was organized in March 2020 by a group of highly published, world renowned Critical Care physician/scholars – with the academic support of allied physicians from around the world – to research and develop lifesaving protocols for the prevention and treatment of COVID-19 in all stages of illness. Their MATH+ Hospital Treatment Protocol – introduced in March 2020, has saved thousands of patients who were critically ill with COVID-19. Now, the FLCCC’s new I-Mask+ Prophylaxis and Early At-Home Outpatient Treatment Protocol with Ivermectin has been released – and is a potential solution to the global pandemic. 

For more information: https://covid19criticalcare.com/