Antibody treatment could help keep COVID patients out of the ICU

Winston Medical Center has admintered Monoclonal Regeneron Antibody treatments

LOUISVILLE, Miss. (WCBI) – A positive test COVID-19 doesn’t mean hospitalization for every patient with a new treatment.

“I don’t know that it kept me out of the hospital, but I’d rather not take that chance and find out,” Matt Woodward said.

Matt Woodward is an employee at Winston Medical Center in Louisville. After testing positive for COVID, he chose a new way of keeping symptoms from worsening.

“I feel like that that the Regeneron helped decreased the severity of the symptoms. I went home and quarantined and by Friday or Saturday, two or three days after receiving the treatment, I felt normal again,” Woodward said.

Winston Medical has been offering patients Monoclonal Regeneron antibody treatments. It’s a medicine that Director of Nursing Bert Turcotte, has seen help COVID patients avoid harsh symptoms.

“The vaccine is for the prevention and the Regeneron is for the symptoms to be less and not need to be hospitalized. That patient can receive the Regeneron and then go home, then probably have a good result from receiving that infusion,” Turcotte said.

Unlike the vaccine, the antibody treatment can only be administered if a patient receives a positive COVID test.

“You can get it in and infusion, which is an I.V., takes about 30 minutes. Then we want you for an hour to make sure you don’t have any reactions Or you can get it in 4 shots. It takes just a couple of minutes and then we watch you for an hour to make sure you don’t have reactions,” Registered Nurse, Natalie Willis, said.

According to Registered Nurse Natalie Willis, Winston County has been averaging 14 cases per day. However, more than half of those people choose to receive the infusion because of the rising number of hospitalizations nationwide.

“Once you actually have COVID, people usually feel pretty bad and these injections, the Regeneron, what we give a lot. That actually cuts down on the time they’re sick and a lot of people said they feel 100% better in just a couple of days after they receive it,” Willis said.

Anyone who is either vaccinated or unvaccinated can receive the antibody treatment if they test positive for COVID.