Margaret Novins, 53, received an emerging treatment for COVID-19 at a Freehold, N.J. hospital
After three nights in the hospital, Margaret Novins' COVID test came back positive: "Detected Critical"
Posted on 03/23/2020 8:40:06 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Margaret Novins talked to me on her cellphone from a hospital bed at CentraState Medical Center in Freehold, N.J.
She had been ill since March 8, toughing it out through fatigue, a cough and fevers that brought on vicious chills for five evenings straight.
Finally, on March 15, she went to an urgent care center and, on March 16, to an emergency room. The attending there called it “conversational dyspnea.”
“I couldn’t breathe,” she said.
Novins, who shared her lab tests and medication list, got her diagnosis March 19. Next to the entry for SARS-CoV-2 were the words “Detected Critical.” She had the coronavirus, or COVID-19.
To that point, Novins had been a pneumonia patient for three days, treated mainly with antibiotics. But within an hour, a new drug was added to her med list: hydroxychloroquine, a decades-old malaria-turned-autoimmune drug, also called by its brand name Plaquenil. President Trump is touting the drug, some say overselling it, as the possible answer to the COVID-19 crisis.
Novins’ responded to the treatment. She was better, though surely not well, the next day.
“The fever,” which was still spiking when she was on other meds, “is now gone, which is fantastic,” she said on Saturday March 21, coughing at times but able to speak.
A 53-year-old nurse who described herself as a nonsmoker with no medical issues, Novins spoke to me from the hospital that had cared for some of the seven members of a family ravaged by COVID; two adult brothers, a sister and their mother died from the infection.
“The doctor insisted the pharmacy get it to me the minute we got the positive,” she said of hydroxychloroquine. “It seemed like their go-to right away.”
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
Three days for the test results?
POST SCRIPT:
Jane Marke, a New York City psychiatrist who takes Plaquenil for Lyme disease, said she had trouble getting her prescription filled at several city chains. After reading the French study, she understands why. “It is really possible that this is a major breakthrough,” she said, envisioning a time when a good test could pick up early infections and the drug would stop the epidemic in its tracks.
In that vein, the University of Minnesota is organizing a trial to treat 1,500 people with hydroxychloroquine who were exposed to the virus from infected family members or as healthcare workers but are not yet ill. The study relied on laboratory experiments in China that found hydroxychloroquine inhibited the infection.
“If effective, this may become a worldwide standard of care for helping prevent disease in other healthcare workers and people exposed,” Dr. David Boulware, a U of M professor of medicine, said in announcing the study.
A key advantage of an off-patent generic drug like hydroxychloroquine: “A five-day treatment course would cost approximately $12,” Boulware said.
Novins, meantime, is expecting to leave the hospital in a day or two. As a nurse for a medical equipment company, she believes she contracted the infection not from a patient but while conducting a day-long training session.
Nonetheless, she said in a text, “I feel fortunate.”
Come on, Mary Beth. Learn the lingo. "SARS-CoV-2" is the VIRUS. COVID-19 is the DISEASE.
"COVID" stands for "COrona VIrus Disease."
It's a small thing, yes, but it's indicative of how little these reporters pay attention to the important details and make you suspect everything they write.
Second story this morning of this drug helping people in very serious condition, Also a man in FL. How will the MSM keep this positive news quiet ?
We should just call it the Chinese virus, the Chinese plague, or the China Syndrome.
And another: http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/3827418/posts
This may guarantee Trumps reelection if this actually works.
A week ago I called it the “ChinaVirus” in the title to an email to the team at work directing them to a constantly updated statistics site.
I was literally almost fired over it. I saved the hateful emails a couple of team members (who filed the formal complaint) sent me to preserve as evidence for a potential lawsuit should I be fired over it.
I’m not really worried though. It’s just an “insurance policy”.
Good news!
Prayers UP!
I have already decided I will be asking for this drug if I get a positive test.
If its now available in generic form there should be no problem getting companies to produce and distribute it.
It's in our future! Patient who has Corona virus gets in fight with patient who has Lyme disease over bottle of Plaquenil!
RE: It’s in our future! Patient who has Corona virus gets in fight with patient who has Lyme disease over bottle of Plaquenil!
For a capitalist, one should not think there would be a shortage of this. There would be a HUGE DEMAND for this and manufacturers will be working overtime to fill the demand.
IDENTIFY THESE COMPANIES AND BUY THEIR STOCKS!
I suspected everything they wrote for such a long time I quit reading what they wrote and quit buying their newspapers. Do you hear me, New York Slimes?
So... it works for Corona with Lyme ;)
It’s the Commie Rat Flu to me.
Yeah, I’d probably have been fired over that. :)
Mylan in Morgantown WV started today to make 50 million doses.
Yup. Getting right on that at blazing speed aren’t they? Significant improvements in testing have been promised by the start of last week since a week ago last Friday. This has not yet happened.
Notice how FDA niggardly refuses to make the test approved except on a provisional basis.
Almost in passing the article mentions that FOUR other members of her family have died from the virus. Two brothers, sister and mother. Just wow! Must be something genetic.
Three days for test results? Yup, when seconds count modern medicine, US medicine, the best in the world is only days and dollars away.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.