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He DID go to a hospital. He DID tell them where he came from. The hospital sent him home with a misdiagnosis.
He was taken to a different hospital after his symptoms worsened. If many people were exposed once he was symptomatic, it's the first hospital's fault more than anyone. I'm not qualified for any kind of medical care and if a person from West Africa vomited in front of me, I would immediately demand he go in quarantine. Don't blame our government. Don't blame him for not seeking treatment. He did. The hospital failed to act appropriately. And it's not beyond reason that he was hustled out the door of the emergency room because he didn't have American health insurance.
He knew he had been exposed to Ebola. He knew that when he boarded the plane. He knew that when he exposed his family, friends, and FIVE SCHOOL AGED CHILDREN. He knew that when he exposed everyone in the waiting room at the hospital the first time. He knew that when he left the hospital too, the first time - and I'd be willing to bet a pretty large sum of money that he did NOT tell THAT pertinent tidbit of information to the medical personnel the first time. "Yeah, I was in the same taxi as an Ebola patient, along with her brother, a few days ago in Liberia, and now they're both dead and I'm here with a fever and a stomach ache." I bet THAT conversation didn't happen.
When he originally went to the ER, he told the triage nurse that he had been in Liberia. Now - there's not much of an excuse for a triage nurse not to know that Liberia is a West African country that is stricken with Ebola, but he did NOT say "Africa" - he said, "Liberia." With his accent, the nurse may not have connected the dots.
I'd hate to be in her shoes right now - what a horrible mistake she made and of course the hospital is ALSO liable - but so is he. He risked the lives of others knowing full well that he'd been exposed.
I'm not blaming our government, and I'm not blaming HIM for "not seeking treatment." He DID seek treatment - he got on a plane headed for the US as fast as he could and showed up at a hospital so early on in the disease that the symptoms weren't even recognizable as symptoms of Ebola. I think he knew he was a marked man the very day he shared that taxi with the unfortunate young woman and her brother who both died a few days later. He didn't care if he infected or exposed anyone else to the disease - he intended to get to the US and to superior medical care, even though he's not even a US citizen. Now - I can't say that I completely blame him for that, but his willful and negligent exposure of his family members, CHILDREN, medical personnel, people in the waiting room, and God knows who else is INCREDIBLY SELFISH.
I just heard Dr. Gumpta say that they are trying to figure out how many people he came in contact with during the four days that he was walking around contagious.
It's the secondary contact that worries me. Right now, they are thinking he came into contact with 20 people. But...how many people did THEY come into contact with? And so on..
The nurse that dropped the ball needs to fired.....after she's quarantined.
He DID go to a hospital. He DID tell them where he came from. The hospital sent him home with a misdiagnosis.
He was taken to a different hospital after his symptoms worsened. If many people were exposed once he was symptomatic, it's the first hospital's fault more than anyone. I'm not qualified for any kind of medical care and if a person from West Africa vomited in front of me, I would immediately demand he go in quarantine. Don't blame our government. Don't blame him for not seeking treatment. He did. The hospital failed to act appropriately. And it's not beyond reason that he was hustled out the door of the emergency room because he didn't have American health insurance.
I do blame him. He was EXPOSED! He should have said "I was exposed to Ebola". Period. If he was in the vicinity of someone, maybe I could see him not mentioning it. But he HELD SOMEONE WITH EBOLA. Should the hospital have done more? Absolutely. He did say he came from Liberia. And again, He should have also said "I was exposed to Ebola!"
Not a convincing argument if people wearing that much protection still got it just because they didn't properly remove the gear. It kind of proves my point that Ebola is more easily spread than people are saying. There are people getting Ebola just by being in an infected cab after an infected person was in it. It's not rocket science that all it takes is someone to sneeze and then touch something and another person comes along and touches a contaminated item and then rubs the eyes or nose. The virus has been considered so deadly that it is only kept in a Containment Level 4 facility (when it's not raging through West Africa that is).
It's deadly, at a rate of about 55-60% of patients who get this particular strain, but it really isn't all that contagious, meaning that the virus isn't airborne. I don't believe the "person in a cab sneezing" story. Now, if a person is in a vehicle and they are throwing up or bleeding out, then yes, that vehicle is smothered in contagions. If it were easily transmittable, cities in West Africa would currently be decimated with a majority of the population being infected, and that hasn't happened (yet?). I am not a M.D., nor do I play one on TV, but I suspect that the time when a person is infectious is broader than when I keep hearing, as in, one is not contagious until one shows symptoms. I would bet that there is a window of time before an infected person feels ill or shows symptoms that they are shedding the virus. Also, because the supplies are so limited in these countries, doctors had been examining patients that had not been diagnosed without protection other than nitrile gloves.
It's deadly, at a rate of about 55-60% of patients who get this particular strain, but it really isn't all that contagious, meaning that the virus isn't airborne. I don't believe the "person in a cab sneezing" story. Now, if a person is in a vehicle and they are throwing up or bleeding out, then yes, that vehicle is smothered in contagions. If it were easily transmittable, cities in West Africa would currently be decimated with a majority of the population being infected, and that hasn't happened (yet?). I am not a M.D., nor do I play one on TV, but I suspect that the time when a person is infectious is broader than when I keep hearing, as in, one is not contagious until one shows symptoms. I would bet that there is a window of time before an infected person feels ill or shows symptoms that they are shedding the virus. Also, because the supplies are so limited in these countries, doctors had been examining patients that had not been diagnosed without protection other than nitrile gloves.
I've been watching the Ebola epidemic for months now, steeling myself for the inevitable, which has now happened. The reassurances from the CDC seem very empty now. Yes, IF all precautions are taken, IF all medical personnel do their jobs correctly, then the U.S. has nothing to worry about. Obviously that wasn't the case in this situation, and if Ebola spreads and our hospitals become overwhelmed, look for more failures like this one. Everyone here is so quick to criticize the countries in West Africa, and yet the systemic breakdowns that happened there could also happen here. We're not immune (pardon the pun!).
Just to clarify - the infected patient went to Texas Pressbyterian Hospital both times. This did not involve two different hospitals.
Whenever I had to go to the ER for myself or my elderly father, the intake nurse asked a lot of questions, and input all my answers in the computer as we spoke. Either the nurse didn't input the information regarding the recent travel from Liberia, or the treating doctor did not read it. It wouldn't surprise me if the nurse was being made the scapegoat in favor of protecting the dr.
A good article explaining the timeline and known facts about this case.
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