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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsI smell BS. Man with coronavirus says drug used to treat malaria 'saved my life'
OS ANGELES Rio Giardinieri, 52, vice-president of a company that manufactures cooking equipment at high-end restaurants in Los Angeles and around the world, thinks he contracted COVID-19 at a conference in New York. He had a fever for five days, horrendous back pain, headache, cough, and tiredness. He was sleeping about 15 hours a day, when hes used to getting five hours a night.
He said his doctors did not want to see him, so he drove to Joe DiMaggio Hospital in South Florida, near his home, and nearly passed out waiting to get tested.
Doctors diagnosed him with pneumonia and coronavirus. They put him on oxygen in the ICU, but he said he was still unable to breathe. After more than a week, he said doctors told him there was really nothing more they could do. On Friday evening, March 20, he said goodbye to his wife and three children.
I was at the point where I was barely able to speak, and breathing was very challenging, he said. I really thought my end was there. I had been through nine days of solid pain and for me, the end was there, so I made some calls to say, in my own way, goodbye to my friends and family.
A dear friend immediately sent him a recent article about hydroxychloroquine, an old anti-malaria medicine proven successful to treat COVID-19 patients overseas, and insisted he take the drug.
Giardinieri reached out to an infectious disease doctor.
He gave me all the reasons why I would probably not want to try it because there are no trials, said Giardinieri. Theres no testing. It was not something that was approved, and I said, Look, I dont know if Im going to make it until the morning, because at that point, I really thought I was coming to the end because I couldnt breathe anymore. He agreed, and authorized the use of it, and 30 minutes later, the nurse gave it to me.
Giardinieri described what happened next. An hour after an IV with the medicine, he said his heart felt like it was beating out of his chest.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/fox6now.com/2020/03/22/man-with-coronavirus-who-works-in-la-says-drug-used-to-treat-malaria-saved-my-life/amp/
Goodheart
(5,334 posts)lame54
(35,295 posts)It will mean Trump's reelection
tulipsandroses
(5,124 posts)team at the hospital?
RandySF
(58,945 posts)Mike 03
(16,616 posts)and speak. It's extremely serious. They can't do anything.
Hoyt
(54,770 posts)https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/hcp/therapeutic-options.html
From French state owned France 24
Didier Raoult, director of a university hospital institute in Marseille, explained that he had conducted a clinical trial in which he treated 25 Covid-19 patients with hydroxychloroquine. After six days, he said, only 25 percent of patients who took this drug still had the virus in their body. By contrast, 90 percent of those who had not taken hydroxychloroquine continued to carry the Covid-19."
https://www.france24.com/en/20200320-will-an-old-malaria-drug-help-fight-the-coronavirus
Doctors Turn to Malaria Drugs as Potential Coronavirus Treatment
Some studies of chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine have shown early signs of improving symptoms and manufacturers are donating drugs or looking increase supplies
https://www.wsj.com/articles/doctors-turn-to-malaria-drugs-as-potential-coronavirus-treatment-11584729626
China, South Korea and Belgium have added it to the treatment protocol for CV19
https://www.businessinsider.com/malaria-pill-chloroquine-tested-as-coronavirus-treatment-2020-3
If Im hospitalized with poor prognosis, and no alternative treatments, Im requesting these or similar drugs for off-label use. If something better comes along, Ill consider those.
Mike 03
(16,616 posts)Here's a good story on the four actual drug regimens being tested and the reality behind them.
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/03/who-launches-global-megatrial-four-most-promising-coronavirus-treatments
Even if I am not hospitalized, I am going to beg my doctor to look into this.
I am a 1/2 full type person, so I am hoping and praying that this will at least soften the disease, because at this point anything is a plus!
Phoenix61
(17,006 posts)He was never intubated. The article is in an LA paper but treatment was in Fl. Somethings a little off here.
superpatriotman
(6,249 posts)Too much bs here to cut through
Yonnie3
(17,444 posts)Edit to add - I did a bit more looking and there are IV solutions of chloroquine (not hydroxychloroquine) available in the Malarial belt countries, but is has fallen into disuse because the Malaria is resistant to it.
I also believe this is BS. Trump tweeted an article with this story from the New York Post.
A search shows no IV version of the drug out there.
He's at death's door but manages to get a message from a friend and comprehend it.
He, still at death's door, manages to communicate with an infectious disease doctor and negotiate an off label treatment.
Somehow a non-IV drug is quickly available in an IV.
...
I don't need to go further.
Maybe the drug will help some, maybe not. All the BS anecdotes won't substitute for the trials going on as I type.
Nature Man
(869 posts)and making phone calls?
What anti-malaria medicine company does he own stock in?
spanone
(135,848 posts)presidential propaganda
Corgigal
(9,291 posts)TWiV.
People on DU need to know its out there. Listen to episode 593.
Wish Trump did.
wishstar
(5,270 posts)He claims his doctors attribute the disturbing erratic heartbeat to the virus rather than the drug, but I am skeptical of his claim since I have read that this drug is dangerous for those wtih AFIB and heart conditions as it can cause heart beat irregularity.
Brainfodder
(6,423 posts)I for one will not be partaking in that med.
Wounded Bear
(58,670 posts)with a huge rock of salt. Individual experiences are pretty meaningless in a pandemic affecting millions world wide.