Daughter, doctor credits treatment for helping her father survive COVID-19

For Dr. Sherine Hanna, fighting COVID-19 is both professional and personal.

Hanna is the medical director of surgical services for OSF HealthCare St. Elizabeth and St. Paul medical centers in Ottawa and Mendota. She has witnessed the effect COVID-19 has had on patients and fellow employees at her hospitals.

Two days before Thanksgiving, however, Hanna’s father, Farag Girgis, who lives in Bolingbrook, began complaining of a cold.

“He called me and said ‘I’m not coming over for Thanksgiving. I don’t feel right.’ He doesn’t usually complain,” Hanna said. “I suggested he and my mom get tested. Any cold at this time is not good.”

Girgis went to an urgent care center, where his daughter’s worst fears were confirmed: her father tested positive for COVID-19.

“I was worried he wasn’t going to survive,” Hanna said. “He has so many health issues – high blood pressure, kidney problems, spinal stenosis – to name a few. I knew we had to act fast.”

Hanna started her search for a monoclonal immunotherapy infusion that helps prevent COVID-19 hospital admissions. It’s called Bamlanivimab, or BAM, and is approved for high-risk adult and pediatric COVID-19 positive patients with mild to moderate symptoms. The laboratory-made antibody mimics a naturally occurring one, which is known to fight off the virus that causes COVID-19. The Eli Lilly drug received an emergency use authorization by the FDA for the therapy in November.

The drug is being administered in specially designated outpatient infusion sites throughout OSF HealthCare. Patients who qualify for BAM have been found to be at high risk for severe COVID-19 illness and may need hospitalization if untreated. BAM is most effective when given early and needs to be administered within 10 days of the onset of symptoms. BAM is not intended for routine use in the management of COVID-19, and it is not approved for hospitalized COVID-19 patients.

Hanna took her father to OSF St. Elizabeth where he underwent a telehealth visit and was scheduled for infusion therapy Nov. 27, which happened to be the first day OSF offered the monoclonal immunotherapy infusion. Girgis was the second patient to receive the treatment.

Hanna dropped her father off at the infusion center and picked him up two hours later. He went home and required no oxygen. Hanna said his turnaround was nothing short of “amazing.”

OSF in Ottawa has treated about 40 patients since November with BAM.

“The goal is to keep patients out of the hospital,” said Dr. Brian Rosborough, chief medical officer, OSF St. Elizabeth Medical Center. “So far it appears the treatment is being well tolerated and patients are responding favorably.”

“Through OSF, we were able to coordinate and get these infusion centers up and running as soon as we were able to get the monoclonal antibody from the state. We just happened to be on our game and ready to go.”

So far, OSF has treated 672 patients with BAM.

“We believe that, thanks to the BAM infusion, we have prevented as many as 60 people from being hospitalized with COVID-19,” said Mark Meeker, D.O., vice president of physician services, OSF HealthCare. “Other diseases aren’t going away because COVID is here. So people still need treatment for other illnesses. So we need capacity to take care of them. We can’t afford for our hospitals to totally fill up with COVID, because then we can’t take care of other people. I am hopeful that this antibody indeed lowers the progression of disease in this high risk population so we can keep our hospitals out of full capacity.”