Dallas hospital alters account, raising questions on Ebola case (Knew he'd come from Liberia)

CNBC / The New York Times ^ | October 4, 2014 | Manny Fernandez, Michael D. Shear and Abby Goodnough

[2ndDivisionVet]

DALLAS—Health officials' handling of the first Ebola patient diagnosed in the United States continued to raise questions Friday, after the hospital that is treating the patient and that mistakenly sent him home when he first came to its emergency room acknowledged that both the nurses and the doctors in that initial visit had access to the fact that he had arrived from Liberia.

For reasons that remain unclear, nurses and doctors failed to act on that information, and released the patient under the erroneous belief that he had a low-grade fever from a viral infection, allowing him to put others at risk of contracting Ebola. Those exposed included several schoolchildren, and the exposure has the potential to spread a disease in Dallas that has already killed more than 3,000 people in Africa....

[doc maverick]

By not limiting flights from Africa, employing a 3 week quarantine before coming in to the US, not shutting down our borders, and by sending our soldiers to Ebola land, Obama is using biowarfare on US citizens.
Pure and simple. There are ways he could decrease our risk of illness and he is REFUSING to employ them.
There are more ebola cases in the US then are being reported.
We may hear the truth after the election, but I doubt it.

[TomGuy]

Sounds like this is setting up grounds for a lawsuit late.

They didn’t treat him right; therefore, he and/or his family deserve $50 million or some such.

[Dark Knight]

I doubt he will live to see the charges. I doubt he will live long enough to know he exposed his loved ones to something that will may kill them too. But at 104 degree fever, I doubt he was thinking rationally. Facing unexpected death that will be horrid and days in the future...

It was the job of our government to not let him in unrestricted. It was the job of our healthcare system to see the CLEAR threat the first time he was in...wanna bet he did not have insurance and was “diagnosed” as nothing serious and not required treatment by the hospital? Who’s gonna sue? It was the job of the CDC and our government to get on the isolation...that worked well. It was their job to decontaminate the scene, I’m sure the neighbors and the landlord really appreciate it. I’m sure the new neighbors really appreciate it too.

I’m sure the cops outside the door when they did not obey the quarantine order really appreciated the possibility of using force on people in the household to enforce that order...ick.

I’m not convinced this is a CF as I am that the elected leader has NO required skills of the office. Either a leader or a manager is the requirement. And I’m sure his golf scores are just the same.

DK

[bgill]

Asking questions takes up valuable time. These days, doctors are only allowed to spend X minutes with each patient and are called on the carpet if they exceed the time limit. Get ‘em in. Get ‘em out. Next!

[LambSlave]

Doctors do sometimes write scripts for antibiotics when the primary diagnosis is viral infection. They probably shouldn’t, but I have seen this happen to myself and others many times— and I am allergic to many antibiotics! Reasons seem to be (i) They haven’t confirmed a viral infection in the lab (they never do this), so even though they are leaning that way, it could be bacterial so they want to cover the bases. (ii) Patient pressures them to give them something and they cave. (iii) Prescribe antibiotics in cases where there is a potential risk of secondary infection.

[ladyjane]

I don’t think the ebola patient ever saw a doctor. If you go into a big city ER and have a gun shot wound, you’ll get to see a doctor. If you go in there complaining of flu symptoms, a tooth ache or wax in your ear don’t expect to see one.

[mrsmel]

The first lie began with the man from Liberia. I hope everyone who let this slip through the cracks gets their due, but I don’t want to see blame deflected from the first link in the chain, though I don’t doubt that it will be.

[mrsmel]

Thank you. He told the first lie that started this whole ball rolling.

[ladyjane]

I’m sure the cops outside the door when they did not obey the quarantine order really appreciated

I'm wondering what kind of orders these cops had. The people try to leave the apartment. Were the cops supposed to restrain them? put them in cuffs? expose themselves to a deadly virus?? or throw a plastic sheet over them? They couldn't shoot them. Blood would be everywhere.

[mylife]

Interesting theory.

[mylife]

It was reported on day one that Duncan told them he had just arrived from Liberia.

[IDontLikeToPayTaxes]

They were too dense to hear “I JUST FLEW IN FROM FREAKING LIBERIA!”.

You're assuming that the nurses and doctors even know what the hell a "Liberia" even is.

People don't know about Liberia, or even how to spell it. They don't know what the continent of Africa is.

A lot of adults (most, perhaps?) can't even find the United States on a map of the world.

You absolutely can't overestimate how DUMB most Americans are these days. O'Reilly talked about it a few months ago on his show. He said that when a population becomes so uneducated and dumb and gullible, that's when these tin pot dictators come to power. The dumb masses don't even realize that they're being manipulated and used and exploited. You see this kind of thing all the time in the Third World.

[Jim Noble]

I'd have to see the records to understand this story better - but if the plan is for every hospital seeing febrile patients from West Africa WHO OTHERWISE LOOK WELL AND WHOSE BLOODWORK IS NOT ALARMING to place those patients into high-level isolation and activate their Ebola containment plan, while the nation continues to allow hundreds or thousands from West Africa to arrive, then our whole system is going to crash in about three weeks.

I work in New Hampshire, and even here there are hundreds of Somalis, Liberians, and Congolese who are sponsoring relatives all the time. A lot of them are sick when they arrive.

We can handle one "rule out Ebola". We can arguably handle two at once. Beyond that, the territory is unknown.

It's very difficult to understand what our leaders are thinking.

[Cringing Negativism Network]

The utter incompetence of the Obama policies may well cause a (massive) loss in the elections in one month.

Massive.

Obama stop allowing immigration from Ebola countries, until this crisis is over.

[onedoug]

“For duty and humanity.”

[SunkenCiv]

> ...the hospital that is treating the patient and that mistakenly sent him home when he first came to its emergency room acknowledged that both the nurses and the doctors in that initial visit had access to the fact that he had arrived from Liberia. For reasons that remain unclear, nurses and doctors failed to act on that information...

They sound like Obama voters.

[Eagles6]

Sorta like do you really think that officials in the hot zone countries want to keep infected people in their countries? Heck no! They want them on the first plane out!

[NonValueAdded]

Read the report from FReeper Onona, here, whose wife was on the NJ plane with the vomiting Liberian. Not only was the plane full of Liberians, likely fleeing the country, but they were allowed to continue on to their destinations. Now, assuming they were asymptomatic, that does not rule out that they were exposed and are mere days from becoming symptomatic. They took the addresses. Wonderful. Just like all the captured illegals who take off into the countryside, never to be found again. This is insane.

[null and void]

The game of Ebola Roulette continues...

*click* spin *click* spin *click* spin…BANG!

Eeeee-bolllll-aaaaaa ping!

Bring Out Your Dead

We’re gonna need

a bigger cart!

Post to me or FReep mail to be on/off the Bring Out Your Dead ping list.

The purpose of the “Bring Out Your Dead” ping list (formerly the “Ebola” ping list) is very early warning of emerging pandemics, as such it has a high false positive rate.

So far the false positive rate is 100%.

At some point we may well have a high mortality pandemic, and likely as not the “Bring Out Your Dead” threads will miss the beginning entirely.

*sigh* Such is life, and death...

[Alas Babylon!]

Ok, say this guy has infected two people in the US. That seems to be the R0 with ebola. In 21 days, or Oct 25th, those two will have infected 4 people. In 21 days from then, 15 November, those four will infect 8. 21 Days later, the 8 infect 16. 21 days after that, the 16 infect 32. Add another 21 days, 64 infected. +21, 128. +21, 256. +21, 512. +21, 1024.

So by the 11th of April, 2015, one person could infect over a thousand people. With a disease mortality rate of 60%.

I don’t want to see anyone fly into a panic, but it would be nice to see EVEN LOCAL HOSPITALS (meaning PEOPLE who work there) get a freaking clue. Way too many of the dead in West Africa have been doctors and nurses and other people who work in HOSPITALS!!!

Seriously. Don’t they value their own lives?