Did anyone catch 60 Minutes? Like the stellar news operation they are, they actually sat and interviewed the nurses who took care of the nations first Ebola patient. I have been waiting for this interview, hoping someone would do it. A few things are crystal clear: 1. Whether intentionally or not, Duncan misled authorities about his exposure to Ebola. When Duncan first arrived at Presby on September 25, he didn’t specify that he’d come from Liberia or even West Africa — the center of the Ebola outbreak. He only said Africa. Which is a whole continent. I have always wondered why his family, who recently protested in front of Presby, didnt step up and say anything about where he had come from. Maybe hospital ERs need to have psychics on staff? Whats the CPT code for reading minds? Duncans fever was initially 100 (which I had the other day, actually 101 no biggie) then 103 then 100. So he was treated for a sinus infection and sent home. Duncan was re-admitted to the hospital three days later, probably now with more Ebola symptoms. Even then he wasnt completely honest. He said he hadn’t been exposed to anyone who was sick from Ebola, even though he was from Liberia, ground zero of the Outbreak. There were reports of how he helped carry an Ebola-infected woman to a local hospital in Liberia. Where did those originate? Duncan also told this sweet nurse -- watching her face just made me cry -- that he’d buried his daughter who died in childbirth — but he said that she hadn’t died from Ebola. Then he denied the story to federal officials. I guess buried could be confused with carried... OK so Im confused. He comes here to see his son who is 20, and to marry that boys mother, but he had a daughter in Liberia of child bearing age? How many wives has he had? Could it be that he didnt know the daughter was sick with Ebola? 2. The hospital was unprepared because our CDC was unprepared. We can let everyone into this country but our major disease brain had not prepared the medical community for the onslaught. That is their job, by the way. The first US Ebola patient had just been treated in August. (Someone suggested to me that perhaps Duncan came here because he knew of Dr. Brantly, the FW physician.) Texas Presby unfortunately became the first guinea pig for receiving an Ebola patient. Protections to treat Ebola patients & protect health care workers were not clear. Dr. Frieden was ever so sure everything was under control. The CDC changed protocols AFTER the two Presby nurses became ill. This is one reason why I was a little nuts during Ebola Dallas week -- being married to a physician, I was concerned about his safety and that of his nurses. One of the intensive care nurses who treated Duncan has a pregnant wife! I think the CDC owes Texas Presby a big fat apology. In fact, I think it owes the whole country. Quarantining health care workers is so stupid because that will just make them less likely to volunteer to help eradicate this disease at the source where we need to stop it. Why not keep everyone else out of the US except for health care workers who know the minute they get a fever what they most likely have. I asked my husband why the health care workers seem so cavalier about this disease -- bowling, going out -- when they know they are at some risk. He said that when they work so closely with it, they likely dont have the same fears we do and they know when the contagious period begins. Watch this -- need kleenex! cbsnews/news/ebola-inside-the-first-united-states-diagnosis-thomas-eric-duncan/
Posted on: Mon, 27 Oct 2014 05:34:12 +0000
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