Treatment of COVID-19 Patients at Texas City Nursing Home Draws Ethical Questions

April 13, 2020

(Houston Chronicle) – When Larry Edrozo got a phone call from his mother’s nursing home in Texas City telling him she was being treated for the novel coronavirus with an unproven pharmaceutical drug, he had two questions: why was she getting the drug if she had not been showing symptoms, and who gave consent? Helen Edrozo, 87, is one of 56 residents at the Resort at Texas City who tested positive for the coronavirus. At least one resident, an elderly woman, has died. Edrozo and 38 others are being medicated with hydroxychloroquine, a drug sold under the brand name Plaquenil that is typically used to treat malaria and lupus and has shown some evidence of possibly tamping down symptoms of the virus.