Coronavirus News: New Jersey athlete waiting on life-saving drugs after positive coronavirus test was lost

ByMichelle Charlesworth WABC logo

Wednesday, March 25, 2020

Athlete from New Jersey waiting on life-saving drugs after positive coronavirus test lost

Michelle Charlesworth reports on a 25-year-old athlete from New Jersey who is waiting on life-saving drugs after testing positive for the coronavirus.

EDISON, New Jersey (WABC) -- A family in New Jersey is hoping their son comes out of critical condition after testing positive for the coronavirus.

The family has been waiting for their 25-year-old son, Jack Allard, to be given potentially life-saving drugs, but the test that showed he was positive was lost.

"There's no reason why NBA players with their sniffles are getting their results before my son who is on a ventilator," Jack's mother Genny Allard said.

Priority has got to be given to the very ill -- that's the point made by the family of Allard who has been fighting for his life around the clock.

He's been in intensive care on a ventilator for six days in a medically induced coma.

"My son is healthy, no pre-existing conditions and he's 25 - this virus is really dangerous and now he is very, very sick," Genny Allard said.

For days, Allard suffered a fever after continuing to work in Manhattan.

"He shouldn't have been in his office that week before he got sick," Genny Allard said.

What really set the process back is that Allard's coronavirus test was somehow lost by the lab, which set everything back five days. A person has to be tested and test positive to get special access to experimental drugs.

"Somehow they lost his test and it cost all those days," U.S. Rep. Josh Gottheimer said. "Inexcusable."

Gottheimer has fought to cut through red tape and get Allard on a drug normally used for malaria called Remdesivir.

"We've been working with the FDA and the drug company to get the drug to him -- hopefully within the next number of hours," Gottheimer said.

Allard's mother said he is a healthy 25-year-old.

"He never vaped, he never smoked," Genny Allard said. "He took his health very seriously -- I mean he's an athlete."

The hope is Remdesivir works and that healthy, strong, All-American Jack will be saved through a possible new use for this known drug.