Physician's assistant Nick Lawyer says that he was forced to resign from his position as the Sanders County health official after a man blamed him for his wife's death, revealed CBS News reporter David Begnaud.
According to Lawyer, the man is claiming that his wife was denied Ivermectin, Hydroxychloroquine and antibodies before she died from COVID-19.
Speaking to the county commissioners, the local man accused the commissioners of having their "strings" pulled by someone more powerful.
"Look around you," the man said to the commissioner meeting. "These people and God will be the ones judging you. You should thank God that we live in a Republic because if we lived in a Democracy, you would be pulled out of here and run up the flagpole. I have too much respect and love of country for that to happen. Commissioners Cox and Magera, there is still time for you to redeem yourselves. You can do the right thing for once in your lives and discharge this petty tyrant. His rules of protocol just cost my wife her life. It is personal now. Had she been given the right kind of medicine that has been proven to work like Ivermectin, Hydroxychloroquine, or the antibody serum, she would be alive and well today. I had to watch her die slowly and in agony. You and your protocols killed her just as surely as you had shot her in the head."
Ivermectin and Hydroxychloroquine have not been proven to work against COVID. In the case of Ivermectin, the dosage required to fight the virus is so toxic that it would poison the infected person. Hydroxychloroquine similarly has become a conspiracy drug that hasn't proved to be successful either. While some researchers claimed to have found results from it, they were ultimately forced to withdraw the research after it was revealed to be invalid.
While the antibodies have proven to work, once a patient is in the ICU, they are too sick to be given the monoclonal antibodies treatment. It has proven to be successful if taken early on in the infection, as Stanford University explained.
Lawyer has nothing to do with policies on patients and who gets what medication, but somehow he became the fall guy for the ICU doctor treating this man's wife.
Montana Public Radio reported that due to the surge of patients at Montana hospitals, they've been forced to ration care.
Dr. Shelly Harkins, chief medical officer of Helena's Saint Peter's Health, revealed last week, "For the first time in my career we are at the point where not every patient in need will get the care we might wish we could give."
"Our ICU is 100-percent full. Our advanced medical unit is 100-percent full, meaning our critical-care resources are at max capacity," she said. Last week she noted, "Our morgue is full. For the first time in this pandemic, we face the reality that we're going to need to bring in additional morgue support. What that actually means is a freezer truck in the parking lot."
She noted that because of the seriousness of the Delta variant, patients are using much more oxygen than for earlier pieces of the virus. She explained that specialty drug supplies to treat COVID-19 are also running short.
"Earlier this week we ran out entirely and we had to wait for our allocated shipment to come in — not knowing exactly when that might be. Therefore, through that time no patients got the medication. This is what crisis standards of care looks like," said Harkins.
It's unclear if the man's wife was one of the patients impacted by such shortages.
Lawyer previously angered residents when he began promoting vaccines and wearing masks. He then infuriated the commission when he sent guidance for schools without "consulting" the non-medical commission.
After resigning, Lawyer revealed that two schools in the town of just 12,000 people were forced to close due to COVID outbreaks.
Saint Peter's is so strapped that they're now begging Gov. Greg Gianforte (R-MT) for help from the National Guard. The far-right governor said that he is considering it. Gianforte also made it illegal in Montana for hospitals to give the COVID-19 vaccine.
See the tweets from Begnaud reporting the story below: