Texas sheriff deputy who sued for Ivermectin secretly got the medication and came home (Exclusive, Part 10)
Jason Jones was hospitalized with COVID and wife fought for right to try
EXCLUSIVE SERIES: This is the final story in a 10-part, seven-month-long series on a dying Texas Sheriff Deputy suing for the right to try Ivermectin for COVID. Now that he’s home, I can report on whether or not he got the medication…
To catch up, read part 9 here: Texas Sheriff Deputy who sued for Ivermectin is off the ventilator.
OR Start from the beginning at part 1 of this story of one Texas doctor and a sheriff deputy’s wife battling against a hospital for patient’s rights.
Texas Deputy Sheriff Jason Jones, then 48, was left for dead last fall when he was forced into the hospital and ventilated with a serious case of COVID. There was little hope for survival as he was put face down in the ICU in a medically-induced coma.
Now, seven months later, he’s home with his devoted wife Erin and six kids. “Just the thought of him coming home seemed like such a long shot. Just can’t believe he did,” Erin said Friday.
“It is miraculous that he survived — despite all of it,” Dr. Mary Talley Bowden, who is the Joneses’ personal doctor told me. “Looking back, I’m shocked. I’ve lost count of how many chest tubes that man has had.”
Bowden prescribed a compound Ivermectin that could be applied topically. Erin told me at the time that she was putting the paste form of Ivermectin on her unconscious husband’s back when she was alone in the room with him.
(We agreed that this would be off the record until Jason was released so the hospital didn't negatively affect his care.)
Erin sued to get the right to try Ivermectin and some other medications the hospital refused to give her husband.
Dr. Bowden prescribed Ivermectin in pill form, but Texas Health Huguley Hospital called the police and restrained her nurse from administering it. Then the hospital put a towel around the feeding tube so Erin couldn’t put the medication in herself.
"Erin was fighting the system. She wasn't fighting COVID,” said Dr. Bowden. “The hospital’s system was a tyranny and in the way of the patients. But the Joneses overcame the system, despite all the unnecessary obstacles.”
A shock ruling by the court said it would not get involved in medical decisions and refused to weigh in on the right to try.
And during all this, GoFundMe pulled its fundraiser off its platform after Erin posted about Ivermectin.
However, the national press about the Joneses’ lawsuit led to a new doctor being assigned his case. Erin feels strongly that Dr. Gagadam is the “best pulmonary doctor” because he turned Jason onto his back so he could get a tracheotomy. This eventually allowed him to leave the hospital and get off the ventilator.
Dr. Bowden believes that a big factor in Jason’s recovery is Erin’s staunch fight as her husband’s medical advocate at the hospital.
“The fact that Erin was there every day is so impressive — just her persistence, especially with six kids at home,” said Dr. Bowden. “Every patient needs an advocate and those hospitals that don’t let families come in the rooms lead to a lot of death.”
Texas Health Hugely only allowed the Joneses’ kids to see their father one time in five month — at Christmas. The rehab center had a rule of one family member per day, which meant only Erin could be with him.
“These hospitals that put up unnecessary obstacles — like isolation and refusing the right to try — are harming patients,” said Dr. Bowden.
Erin’s fight to save her husband’s life is not quite finished. She told me that Jason still has “a long journey of rehab” ahead to regain his muscles and walk again. But, she said, “I know he will do so much better being home!”
It was a joyful scene this week when the Tarrant County Sheriff’s Department stood outside Jones’s rehab center and escorted him home on Wednesday.
Watch the emotional video by the sheriff’s office of Jason being wheeled out in front of the other sheriff’s deputies, applauding his recovery. You see Erin in the gray t-shirt that reads #JASON JONES STRONG
There’s no way to know how much the Ivermectin affected Jason’s recovery with so many other factors, but we know…
Paid subscribers can keep reading below this paywall line about the way the controversial drug Ivermectin is being controlled and censored.
Free subscribers, if this story is new to you, read from the beginning of my exclusive series on Deputy Jones and his devoted wife here: Texas doctor will only treat unvaccinated, denied hospital privileges for prescribing Ivermectin (EXCLUSIVE, Part 1)