'Mild Improvements' for David Lat, but Prognosis Still Uncertain
"There have been mild improvements in his oxygen and his breathing, but he remains intubated and we are still very far from out of the woods," said Zachary Baron Shemtob, Lat's husband, in an interview Thursday.
March 26, 2020 at 07:49 PM
6 minute read
David Lat's breathing capacity and oxygen levels have increased mildly, which are positive signs as he fights the novel coronavirus, but he remains in intensive care and on a ventilator. And his doctors still do not know what the outcome will be as he struggles to survive COVID-19, said Lat's husband late Thursday afternoon.
"There have been mild improvements in his oxygen and his breathing, but he remains intubated and we are still very far from out of the woods," said Zachary Baron Shemtob, Lat's husband, in a phone interview.
"I just want to stress that these improvements are modest, and that we are still waiting," he said. "We remain hopeful."
Shemtob added that in recent days, the physicians at NYU Langone Hospital who are treating Lat, the founder of the legal blog Above the Law, have stopped administering to Lat the novel drug therapies that they began giving him last Saturday, after he was forced into intensive care because of falling oxygen levels.
After Lat was moved to the ICU, intubated and put on a ventilator, his doctors began giving him both a Z-Pak (azithromycin) and the antimalarial drug hydroxychloroquine in an effort to knock down his COVID-19 infection, Shemtob has said. They also started administering an IL 6-inhibitor to help fight the extreme inflammation of Lat's lungs caused by the virus.
By about Monday, after what Shemtob believes was two IL 6-inhibitor treatments, the physicians decided not to give him more, at least for now, said Shemtob. By Wednesday, they stopped the Z-Pak (azithromycin) and hydroxychloroquine therapy.
"They are no longer giving him the drugs, even though they may still be in his system," said Shemtob, who has a 2-year-old son with Lat. "I think they're [the doctors] just looking to see if and how he improves before taking their next steps."
Shemtob said what the next treatment steps may be is unclear. Depending on how Lat, 44, does in the next few days, the doctors could return to using the same drug therapies or perhaps try, or add on, another treatment.
"Just because this [coronavirus] is so new," said Shemtob, "the doctors are taking it day by day," and they haven't tried to predict what may come next as far as treatments, or how Lat will do.
"There is no timeline" for Lat's hoped-for progress, he added, because "there's not a lot of good comparator" cases.
Shemtob, a former clerk for Judge Robert Sack of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and a former associate at Cooley, has said that the drug therapies being used on Lat, in his view, are experimental.
"These drugs have been around a while," he said Thursday, "but they are experimental in the sense that they are now starting to be used for this," the coronavirus.
A small, recent study from France has indicated using a Z-pak and hydroxychloroquine may help people fight off COVID-19. But experts have cautioned that the French study was too small to know about the true safety and efficacy of the drug therapy. Hydroxychloroquine is a derivative of chloroquine, which was discovered in 1934 and later used on malaria patients.
Shemtob, 36, said Thursday that he tries to get a hold of and speak each day by phone with a physician assistant or a nurse working on Lat's case.
He also noted that he hasn't been able to communicate with Lat, who remains mostly sedated, since Lat was put on the ventilator late on March 20 or early March 21.
One of the toughest parts of Lat's illness, he has said, is that he and Lat's other family are not allowed to visit Lat because of the very contagious virus.
For now, Lat and Shemtob's son has been staying with Lat's parents in northern New Jersey, he said Thursday, because he also has contracted the coronavirus, presumably from his previous contact with Lat. But he believes the virus has nearly or fully run its course in him. And other than flu-like symptoms, he's been OK.
Lat, who today is a widely recognized legal recruiter and speaker, has been hospitalized at NYU Langone in Manhattan since March 16. For more than a week before being admitted to the hospital, he had experienced intermittent fevers, joint aches, chills, fatigue and coughing. Labored breathing set in by March 15, forcing him to go to his nearest emergency room to seek a coronavirus test.
In a March 18 phone interview from his hospital bed, Lat said that he's generally been a very healthy person but did note that he has exercise-induced asthma.
On Thursday, Shemtob spoke about being grateful for a huge outpouring of support for Lat that has come from around the legal field and from many others across the globe. Stories about Lat's battle have grabbed hundreds of thousands of readers, and Tweets sent out by those who know him, and those who don't, have been emotional and hopeful—and themselves have been read by many.
"Couldn't sleep last night thinking about him, many prayers sent," said a Twitter user called "Remember Truth n' Justice?" on March 22 in a comment underneath a Tweet out of a story about Lat.
Another Twitter user said that Lat's case, for him, means the end of any debate about whether the virus can be harmful to adults who aren't elderly and who don't have major underlying conditions.
Shemtob also has used the coverage of Lat's fight to spread the message that the virus must be taken seriously by anyone, of any age, and that they should shelter in and not cause risk to themselves or others.
"I've been told that people appreciate the seriousness of this as seen through David," he said. "People we don't even know."
Then, he said of he and the Lat family's reaction to his husband's improved breathing, "We remain hopeful, but we're still very cautious. David remains seriously ill."
NOT FOR REPRINT
© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.
You Might Like
View AllBig Tech and Internet Companies Slammed With Consumer Class Actions in December
Amid Growing Litigation Volume, Don't Expect UnitedHealthcare to Change Its Stripes After CEO's Killing
6 minute readFatal Shooting of CEO Sets Off Scramble to Reassess Executive Security
5 minute readLaw Firms Mentioned
Trending Stories
- 1What Does Ohio Supreme Court's Opioid Decision Mean for Public Nuisance Claims?
- 2Bucking Industry Trend, Sidley Austin Elects Biggest Class of Partners in Firm History
- 3US Judge Throws Out Sale of Infowars to The Onion. But That's Not the End of the Road for Sandy Hook Families
- 4‘Really Deflating’: Judges React to Biden Threat to Veto New Judgeships Bill
- 53 Incidents Lead to Charges Against the Alexander Brothers; Cousin Remains at Large
Who Got The Work
Michael G. Bongiorno, Andrew Scott Dulberg and Elizabeth E. Driscoll from Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr have stepped in to represent Symbotic Inc., an A.I.-enabled technology platform that focuses on increasing supply chain efficiency, and other defendants in a pending shareholder derivative lawsuit. The case, filed Oct. 2 in Massachusetts District Court by the Brown Law Firm on behalf of Stephen Austen, accuses certain officers and directors of misleading investors in regard to Symbotic's potential for margin growth by failing to disclose that the company was not equipped to timely deploy its systems or manage expenses through project delays. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton, is 1:24-cv-12522, Austen v. Cohen et al.
Who Got The Work
Edmund Polubinski and Marie Killmond of Davis Polk & Wardwell have entered appearances for data platform software development company MongoDB and other defendants in a pending shareholder derivative lawsuit. The action, filed Oct. 7 in New York Southern District Court by the Brown Law Firm, accuses the company's directors and/or officers of falsely expressing confidence in the company’s restructuring of its sales incentive plan and downplaying the severity of decreases in its upfront commitments. The case is 1:24-cv-07594, Roy v. Ittycheria et al.
Who Got The Work
Amy O. Bruchs and Kurt F. Ellison of Michael Best & Friedrich have entered appearances for Epic Systems Corp. in a pending employment discrimination lawsuit. The suit was filed Sept. 7 in Wisconsin Western District Court by Levine Eisberner LLC and Siri & Glimstad on behalf of a project manager who claims that he was wrongfully terminated after applying for a religious exemption to the defendant's COVID-19 vaccine mandate. The case, assigned to U.S. Magistrate Judge Anita Marie Boor, is 3:24-cv-00630, Secker, Nathan v. Epic Systems Corporation.
Who Got The Work
David X. Sullivan, Thomas J. Finn and Gregory A. Hall from McCarter & English have entered appearances for Sunrun Installation Services in a pending civil rights lawsuit. The complaint was filed Sept. 4 in Connecticut District Court by attorney Robert M. Berke on behalf of former employee George Edward Steins, who was arrested and charged with employing an unregistered home improvement salesperson. The complaint alleges that had Sunrun informed the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection that the plaintiff's employment had ended in 2017 and that he no longer held Sunrun's home improvement contractor license, he would not have been hit with charges, which were dismissed in May 2024. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Jeffrey A. Meyer, is 3:24-cv-01423, Steins v. Sunrun, Inc. et al.
Who Got The Work
Greenberg Traurig shareholder Joshua L. Raskin has entered an appearance for boohoo.com UK Ltd. in a pending patent infringement lawsuit. The suit, filed Sept. 3 in Texas Eastern District Court by Rozier Hardt McDonough on behalf of Alto Dynamics, asserts five patents related to an online shopping platform. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Rodney Gilstrap, is 2:24-cv-00719, Alto Dynamics, LLC v. boohoo.com UK Limited.
Featured Firms
Law Offices of Gary Martin Hays & Associates, P.C.
(470) 294-1674
Law Offices of Mark E. Salomone
(857) 444-6468
Smith & Hassler
(713) 739-1250