Re: ‘Whatever Happened to Informed Consent?’

I would like to thank Ms. Stella Paul for putting together such a well-written article [“Whatever Happened to Informed Consent?” published in the Sept. 20–26 edition] about a subject that is always at the front of my mind.

My mother passed away from COVID-19 in August 2021 and was horribly mismanaged at the hospital—for one, she tested positive, and after visiting the hospital ER, she was sent home on prednisone and ibuprofen. Three days later, she deteriorated rapidly and was admitted to the hospital, where she was put on a ventilator and expired a little more than three weeks later.

My father, a retired anesthesiologist, wrote a letter to Gov. Desantis about this in October 2021, explaining that my mother had multiple high-risk factors (age, history of cancer and chemotherapy) and she should have been admitted to the hospital and given Regeneron monoclonal antibody treatment (ivermectin was extremely difficult to obtain and was never provided in the hospital). He also explained in the letter that the health care staff in the hospital decided she didn’t fit the criteria for admission. Such criteria were later changed in September of this year (unfortunately, too late for us). 

We asked the governor to have the Florida state legislature modify or repeal the decree of immunity given to health care facilities and professionals. He never responded to my father’s letter. We later sent a complaint to the Agency for Health Care Administration (state of Florida) shortly after. They responded in February of 2023 that they would conduct an investigation.

In March of 2023, we received a letter that AHCA made an unannounced visit to the hospital, and they found that rules and laws were violated during the visit. They also noted that the hospital received notice of deficiencies and would be required to correct them. Of course, the Florida hospitals still have immunity, so while we appreciate the fact that they acknowledged wrongdoing, this is nothing more than a slap on the wrist.

I truly hope at the very least the manufacturer of remdesivir will be held accountable sooner rather than later so that the countless victims and their families who have been needlessly destroyed can at least get a semblance of justice for the atrocities that have happened and continue to happen due to the unethical practice of medicine.

Linda Bikhazi

Florida