For Ebola Victim, US Trip Followed Years of Effort

Thomas Eric Duncan, the first Ebola patient diagnosed in the United States, grew up next to a leper colony in Liberia and fled years of war before later returning to his country to find it ravaged by the disease that ultimately took his life.

Duncan, 42, arrived in Dallas in late September, realizing a long-held ambition to join relatives. He came to attend the high-school graduation of his son, who was born in a refugee camp in Ivory Coast and was brought to the U.S. as a toddler when the boy's mother successfully applied for resettlement....

Really? I mean, c’mon! Human stories are supposed to put a sympathetic light on the late Mr. Duncan?

The guy knowingly came over here, for whatever reason, exposed his own relatives and unknown strangers due to his callousness.

What a selfish human being.

we shouldn’t regard him with fear and loathing for lying about his physical condition in order to use one of our intensive care facilities, and putting the nation at risk of dying by bleeding-out.

I have never said I approve of his actions in this regard. Merely that there is no evidence he came to this country with the intent of getting medical attention, and in fact a great deal of evidence he did so as part of an intention he'd had for several months.

There is also no reason at all to believe he knew he was infected when he left, though I think it's reasonable to believe he knew he had been exposed. A great many, almost certainly most, of those with similar exposures do not actually get the disease. As see the taxi driver riding around with him and the bleeding pregnant girl for several hours who is now giving interviews.

IOW, he probably didn't know, or at least wasn't sure, that the young mother had Ebola when he was trying to help her. But as the symptoms progress they become more and more distinctive, and I suspect when he left he had heard what she died of, so he did indeed lie on his exit papers. That wasn't right, of course.

But I wonder how many freeprers can honestly say they'd do different: Abandon long-made plans and, probably, the very considerable cost to an African of an already purchased ticket in order to protect distant strangers against a possible but not certain risk.

Sorry, but I just don’t find compassion for Mr. Duncan.

Scenario one. He knowingly lied on his forms to come to America. Result = He is a selfish scared man willing to spread the terrible disease to his family and the innocents around him to save his hide in the USA. A bad guy!

Scenario two. He genuinely believed he had not been exposed to Ebola (doubtful). He borded, innocently, a planned flight to be with his family in Dallas. He got sick and didn’t tell his family of the possible infection. YET, it was his own family that called the CDC and agreed to bring him home from the initial hospital visit. If that is the case he deliberately lied to his family AND exposed them to a disease that even his family suspected he was carrying. A bad guy.

Most likely is scenario one. He knew what was going on in Liberia. He lied to the airport authorities, he lied to his family, he lied to hospital staff, and deliberately exposed everyone to Ebola.

His leech of a family now is hoping to win the Jessie Jackson lottery. If I were president I would immediately quarantine the family, check their immigration status, and immediately proceed with deporting them. They wouldn’t pay but I would insist on giving them the bill.

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