A COVID-19 patient whose wife sued a hospital to have him treated with ivermectin has died

• Jeffrey Smith had been in the ICU receiving treatment for COVID-19.
• His wife sued the hospital so it would have to treat him with ivermectin.
• Smith had 13 days of treatment before a judge reversed the order. It's not clear what he died from.

A man whose wife sued an Ohio hospital to give him ivermectin as a COVID-19 treatment has died, his attorney said.

Jeffrey Smith's attorney, Jonathan Davidson, told WXIX-TV in Cincinnati that Smith died on September 25 aged 51.

Smith contracted COVID-19 in early July. His wife, Julie Smith, asked a court on August 20 for an emergency order to have ivermectin prescribed to her husband, who was in the ICU.

Ivermectin is an antiparasitic drug that is commonly used to fight worms in people and animals like horses. There is no evidence it works against COVID-19, and the US Food and Drug Administration has told people to stop using it as a COVID-19 treatment.

Following Smith's lawsuit, Butler County Common Pleas Judge Gregory Howard ordered West Chester Hospital to treat him with the drug.

Smith was treated with the drug for 13 days before another judge ruled that the hospital could not be forced to give it to patients, as Insider's Matthew Loh reported.

"Based on the current evidence, ivermectin is not effective as a treatment for COVID-19," that judge wrote.

It is not clear what Smith died from, or if the ivermectin played a role.