By Michael Hernandez
NEWBURY PARK—Dr. Richard P. Bartlett, a 28-year West Texas emergency room doctor (at Midland Memorial Hospital), shared his effective treatment of COVID-19 patients using budesonide, an inhaled common and inexpensive steroid used with a nebulizer machine, on Wednesday’s Fireside Chat 116 hosted by Godspeak Calvary Pastor Rob McCoy.
“I was doing a 48-hour shift in early March seeing patients I don’t know. I was distraught. I was trying to figure out what I was going to do if someone came in with COVID and they said: ‘I can’t breathe,’” said Dr. Bartlett. “Because there was no treatment plan available. The President had said a treatment plan, then three days later, Dr. (Anthony) Fauci is shooting it down in front of everybody. Then obstacles are put in the way. So I was really upset.
“I was praying in between patients, talking to nurses and the X-ray techs only about COVID, because we were trying to figure out what we were going to do. I had a moment to take a cat nap (in the middle of a 48-hour shift in the emergency room). I woke up, convinced that God had answered my prayer.
“A week later, I had my first two COVID patients. I used that plan that makes sense. It is intuitive. I had an understanding of what the disease is. Everybody I treat gets better and there are doctors all over the country and now all over the world; that are using the strategy and saving lives.
“There is an ICU (Intensive Care Unit) south of San Antonio that unbeknownst to me, started using my treatment protocol on their COVID patients and they got to empty their ICU in 48 hours and it is still empty.”
Dr. Bartlett’s treatment plan or strategy is now outlined in a case study report on SARS-CoV-2 and The Case for Empirical Treatment” (written by Dr. Richard P. Bartlett, MD and Alexandria Watkins, DNP). (Editor’s Note: To see the 15-page case study go to: http://covidsilverbullet.com/.)
The Odessa (West Texas) doctor has generated national media attention after a story was aired on May 21 by Sammi Steele of News West 9, a Midland, Texas news station. Dr. Bartlett said “what I’m using is Budesonide, it’s an inhaled steroid that doesn’t have the side effect of total body steroids but it has the benefits.” He called it the “silver bullet” for COVID-19.
In the television interview, Dr. Bartlett says COVID-19 starts in the respiratory system but then triggers a severe inflammatory process, called Cytokine Storms, that eventually leads to multi-organ failure and death. Bartlett says patients with COVID-19 get prescribed Budesonide and then use a nebulizer and breath in the steroid twice a day.
Dr. Bartlett said he has seen a 100 percent success rate in the 12 patients he has seen–even in high-risk patients. According to Bartlett, the medicine is FDA approved but for asthma treatment, not for treating COVID-19. “I have never seen it work so good for any other process like this. It’s like this medicine was made for this pandemic.”
(Editor’s Note: To see the original News West 9 story go to: https://www.newswest9.com/article/news/local/local-doctor-believes-he-has-found-silver-bullet-for-covid-19/513-8cd065d2-dbb5-4814-9cdd-5bb0dae77703.) A 30-minute July 2 interview of Dr. Bartlett can be viewed at https://vimeo.com/435863426. As Dr. Bartlett has generated media attention, interviews with him posted on YouTube have been pulled, including one interview that had generated four million views.)
Meanwhile, Midland Memorial Hospital said in a July 7 interview done by Sammi Steele of News West 9 that inhaled steroid is no “silver bullet for COVID-19.” Lawrence Wilson, vice president of medical affairs said: “There is no strong information about inhaled steroids and COVID-19. There’s debate on both sides as to whether they are harmful or helpful. I would most definitely NOT call inhaled steroids a ‘silver bullet.’” Wilson said in a previous interview “Midland Health does not advocate the use of ICS (inhaled corticosteroids) as preventative nor as a universally used treatment for COVID-19 infections.”
(Editor’s Note: See this News West 9 interview at:
Several of Dr. Bartlett’s patients defended him in a July 8 interview that can be viewed: https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/medical/covid-patients-defend-dr-bartletts-silver-bullet-medicine-regimen/ar-BB16v52a.)
As a result of Dr. Bartlett’s appearance on Fireside Chat 116, he has recruited a couple California doctors willing to try his treatment strategy on COVID-19. They are joining doctors from Arizona, Louisiana, Tennessee and Texas treating patients the same way.
During Fireside Chat 116 (which is the daily 7 p.m. livestream from Godspeak Calvary that now has almost 2,000 subscribers), Dr. Bartlett said the best news was not about this medical breakthrough but that “God loves you so much that He gave His only Son as a gift to us.” What followed was a short gospel presentation followed by a prayer.
Dr. Bartlett and his wife adopted six children (three from overseas: Latvia (the Baltic region of Northern Europe), Georgia (the Caucasus region of Eurasia), and China) before having their first natural birth child as a couple. Bartlett has done medical missions in Kurdistan in Northern Iraq and has written a 2018 book on his experiences using his surgical skills overseas: “Journey of a Medicine Man: Doctor Confirmed Miracles.”
(Editor’s Note: To view Fireside Chats go to http://godspeak.com/ and click on Godspeak Livestream at 7 p.m. Otherwise, you can view the archive of programs at any time.)
Michael Hernandez, Co-Founder of the Citizens Journal—Ventura County’s online news service; editor of the History Makers Report and founder of History Makers International—a community nonprofit serving youth and families in Ventura County, is a former Southern California daily newspaper journalist and religion and news editor. He worked 25 years as a middle school teacher in Monrovia and Los Angeles Unified School Districts. Mr. Hernandez can be contacted by email at [email protected].
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Considering that there’s still a lot we don’t know about this virus, and with little to no therapy that every expert will endorse, I say “what do you have to lose by trying this?”
At the very least, this should be between the doctor and patient, not any politician, to determine what’s best for the individual.