FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – A South Florida coronavirus patient is grateful to be recovering and is offering his thanks to a controversial drug treatment.
That patient was moved to tears when reflecting on the work of his doctors. .
"You guys saved my life and you know you did," he said from his hospital room at Broward Health.
That help came in the form of hydroxychloroquine, a drug normally used for arthritis and to prevent malaria.
The medicine has also been controversially touted by President Donald Trump to treat coronavirus patients.
"I hope they use it, because I’ll tell you what, what do they have to lose, and in some cases, they’re in bad shape," Trump said.
Now doctors at Broward Health are using experimental doses of that same drug on patients in dire condition.
"When these patients get admitted, they’re really, really sick, and we didn’t have too many options," said Dr. Sunil Kumar, a Critical Care & Pulmonary Medicine physician at Broward Health. "In the initial phase, we started using a combination of Hydroxychloroquine and Azithromycin, a Z-Pak.”
A Z-Pak is an antibiotic, and the treatment underway at Broward Health in Fort Lauderdale is apparently showing promise.