Coronavirus: How did medication from clinical trial save Troy respiratory therapist’s life?

UPDATE (April 24): After reporting on the clinical trial a local respiratory therapist credits with saving her from COVID-19, this News Center 7 reporter reached out to the doctor heading up that trial to find out how the medication works.

A few hours after Amy De Vos’ first dose of the experimental drug Soliris, she showed improvement and continued to get better.

According to neurologist Dr. Tom Pitts, everyone’s immune system has a “complement” but for some with coronavirus, part of that complement does not know how to act.

“It doesn’t recognize it, because it hasn’t encountered it,” he said.

In the process of trying to get rid of the virus, a “MAC” (membrane attack complex) will form and it will destroy the lungs. Soliris stops the MAC from forming.

“We’re basically stopping your immune system from killing you and your lungs, while you have time to fight off the virus,” Pitts said.

While De Vos saw success with her trial, health experts have said there is not enough information yet to show that any one drug is safe and effective to treat COVID-19. There are hundreds of clinical trials occurring around the world to find a cure, but they are in their infancy.

FIRST REPORT

A Troy mother, wife, and respiratory therapist spent 29 days in a hospital fighting COVID-19. She is at home recovering as the first person in a clinical trial using a rare drug to treat the virus.

Amy De Vos was on a ventilator for 16 days of the nearly one month she spent at Upper Valley Medical Center.

At one point, her family went to the hospital to say goodbye.

“I kind of lost a little over two weeks of my life, just not knowing what was going on,” De Vos said.

As her condition worsened, a doctor on her case reached out to a neurologist in New York. They knew each other through Wright State University. That is where Dr. Tom Pitts attended medical school and completed his residency.

He now specializes in neuro immunological diseases.

“I have the honor of fighting off some of the most lethal and catastrophic autoimmune diseases in the world on a regular basis,” Pitts said.

He said COVID-19 is the most aggressive lung disease he has ever seen. However, by researching previous Coronaviruses, he came up with a plan to fight it.

“They found that people’s lungs were actually being attacked with something called the complement, which is part of the immune system,” Pitts said. “So I said ‘great, I have a complement inhibitor. It’s called Soliris, eculizumab.’”

In early March Pitts told News Center 7 he started a clinical trial with the drug which allows him to manipulate how the immune system works.

However, he did not have any patients until De Vos’ doctor called him.

“I was just laying on the couch, you know, being a living wreck, and then he called me and said hey, I wanted to enroll your wife in a trial. I gave my consent,” Tom De Vos, Amy De Vos’ husband, said.

Pitts needed more than just family consent to move forward.

Within three hours, the FDA gave him emergency approval, the Institutional Review Board signed off on the plan, and an ambulance drove the medication from Miami Valley Hospital to Upper Valley Medical Center.

“Without any bureaucracy or hold ups, we were able to mobilize the medicine,” Pitts said.

After just a few hours, De Vos started showing improvements.

“Just a few weeks ago I was on the vent, maxed out on every setting. And then Dr. Pitts came into our lives and changed it within hours,” De Vos said.

Doctors continued to give De Vos Soliris every four days.

While De Vos does not remember much of her time in the hospital, now that she is home she has a message for Pitts.

“Thank you so much. I can’t thank you enough. I owe my life to you, and you’re doing great things for this world,” De Vos said.

Pitts hopes to continue using this approach to save more patients.

De Vos’ case officially started his study.

The FDA has approved an expanded access trial.

He has already given Soliris to five patients and hope to treat many more.

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