Professional Negligence Law Reporter

The Nevada Supreme Court held that the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness (PREP) Act bars a claim alleging a hospital and its health care providers failed to obtain informed consent before administering remdesivir.

Hal de Becker contracted COVID-19 and began taking Ivermectin. He was subsequently admitted to Desert Springs Hospital Medical Center, where a physician abruptly stopped the drug and began treating de Becker with remdesivir. He died shortly after being discharged from the facility.

Suit against the hospital and several physicians alleged lack of informed consent and other claims. The trial court dismissed, holding that the PREP Act barred the plaintiff’s claims.

Affirming, the state high court noted that the PREP Act provides that a covered person shall be immune from suit and liability under federal and state law regarding all claims relating to the administration of a covered countermeasure, following a declaration as to that countermeasure. In 2020, the court said, a federal declaration defined the term administration as extending to the physical provision of a vaccination or handing drugs to a patient. There is no dispute, the court noted, on whether the hospital was a covered person under the act and whether remdesivir was a covered countermeasure.

Turning to whether the plaintiff’s informed consent claim arose out of or related to the hospital’s administration of remdesivir, the court concluded that it was. Citing case law, the court reasoned that because the failure to obtain remdesivir was connected to the administration of the drug such that it was causally related to the administration of a countermeasure, the PREP Act barred the informed consent claim. The court cited the Act’s plain language, noting that the plaintiff’s alleged loss related to the administration of remdesivir.

Consequently, the court held that the trial court had not erred in dismissing the plaintiff’s informed consent claim.

Citation: de Becker v. UHS of Delaware, Inc., 555 P.3d 1192 (Nev. 2024).