A North Jersey woman says that she was desperate to get the drug hydroxychloroquine for her mother-in-law who was believed to have COVID-19.

Nancy Bush says that her 90-year-old mother-in-law became sick about a month ago. Nursing homes were not prescribing the drug unless there was a positive test for the coronavirus.

But testing was hard to come by at the time and a prescription seemed unlikely.

“I was desperate to get a hold of those pills and I was fortunate to get a hold of those pills privately and deliver them to my husband and I delivered them to the facility so she could start them,” says Bush

But unfortunately, those pills did not work. Bush says that she dropped the pills off on a Thursday. By that Saturday her mother-in-law tested positive for the virus. She died the next week.

Health officials are desperate to find an effective treatment for the virus. But they say that there is a process. Just because a nicotine study pops up on social media feeds doesn’t mean one should start smoking to fend off the virus. Medication that works on arthritis won’t necessarily help COVID-19 patients – even if testing shows promise.

“It’s really trying to extrapolate that data and apply it to the patient in front of you. What are we exactly treating? What dose should we start out? Should we start low? Should we start high?” says Dr. Amna Husain

Gilead Science Inc. moved markets when one of its drugs showed potential against the virus. But another trial contracted those findings not even a week later.

Bush says that it has always been about having a chance for those in nursing homes she says are forgotten.

"They were told by the state that they were not to prescribe hydroxychloroquine or the Z-Pack to the elderly in these facilities because they were rationing these medications because there was a shortage on it,” says Bush

The New Jersey attorney general says that he was concerned about hoarding. The state announced that it would loosen limits on prescriptions one day after Bush’s mother-in-law died.

The mother-in-law was a resident of Sunrise Senior Living in Saddle Brook. In a statement, Vice President Denise Falco says, “We would only administer hydroxychloroquine, or any other prescribed medications, at the direction of a physician who has ordered the treatment for a resident under their care."