Thomas Eric Duncan's nephew rips into Dallas hospital over Ebola treatment in newspaper op-ed

NY Daily News ^ | 10/15/2014 | MEREDITH ENGEL

[Kid Shelleen]

Josephus Weeks, nephew of Ebola victim Thomas Eric Duncan, said his uncle died a needless death.

"He was a man of color with no health insurance and no means to pay for treatment, so within hours he was released," Weeks wrote in a Tuesday op-ed for the Dallas Morning News.

Weeks ripped into Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital where his uncle died, saying the medical facility's "ignorance, incompetence and indecency has yet to be explained."

[Christie at the beach]

>>>>And your uncle managed to expose 100 other people at the hospital.”

>>>>No. The incompetence of the hospital and the CDC exposed all of those people. And they continue to do so today.

This would Not have happened if Duncan didn’t come here after being around other Ebola patients. So, the other person is correct.

[2rightsleftcoast]

I’m still not clear on this,was he a citizen? Did he have a
Job? How did he pay for ticket,etc.

[bigredkitty1]

Sorry, I just can’t find it within myself to care. His uncle lied to get into the country because he knew he had been infected. His family knew he had traveled from the hot zone. He and they deliberately withheld vital information. His uncle was no saint by ANY stretch of the imagination. He was a selfish piece of human refuse that cared for only his own hide. If he had not died, I would have loved to have seen him rot in prison until the day he did die. If this is an attempt to garner sympathy and drum up public support when his greedy family tries to sue Texas Health Resources (the parent corporation that owns Presbyterian Hospital Dallas), not going to happen. His uncle directly contributed to his own death. By failing to fully divulge all pertinent information on his first visit to the ER, he delayed the proper medical care he might have received. At any rate, his uncle was the walking dead when he touched down at DFW. He was most likely exhibiting early symptoms and chose to hide or ignore them.

[SZonian]

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2014/10/us_ebola_patient_knew_he_had_disease_came_to_america_for_treatment.html

[Conscience of a Conservative]

But he knew that he carried his landlord's daughter several days before and she DIED of ebola. He applied for a visa, stated he had no contact with anyone with ebola, quit his job and was on a plane to the US within several days.

He may or may not have known the landlord's daughter had Ebola. She was pregnant, and there have been some reports that the rest of the family thought she was hemorraging as a result of her pregnancy (remember, prenatal care in Liberia is.....not like it is here, so maternal mortality rates are higher).

As for the rest of your comment, I believe he had applied for a visa well before he was (knowingly or not) exposed to Ebola. It takes more than "several days" to get a US visa coming from Liberia.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

He was a criminal who lied to get into the country and endangered untold number of lives. People will die because of his illegal entry into the country. Maybe thousands. Maybe millions.

[Conscience of a Conservative]

See my other comment. He may not have known she had Ebola. Again, if he knew, why didn’t he mention it? Why would he have allowed himself to be sent home from the hospital the first time?

[Marie]

I just have to point out: Ebola in pregnant women is vastly different than Ebola in another person. The virus attacks the fetus. Even doctors have been fooled into thinking that it’s a miscarriage or a complication of pregnancy because the symptoms do not fit.

I do have to say that there is a story of a doctor who’s pregnant wife died. He thought she died from pregnancy complications, but it turns out that it was ebola.

This disease behaves completely different in a pregnant body. The horror stories of what is does to a fetus are beyond description.

No. You do not know for sure that a pregnant woman has ebola. The virus goes right for the fetus and kills her that way. Pregnant women do not have a chance against this virus. (something else the cdc isn’t mentioning to the public.)

I am frustrated that people on this thread are blaming Duncan for not giving an accurate diagnosis for a specific situation that has fooled *actual* doctors that *specialize* in treating ebola.

With that said, is the story even true? The nephew is saying that the whole pregnant woman story never happened. Where did that story originate? Some African gossip column?

The real culprit is the Obama administration and we cannot lose focus on that. They have endangered us all and continue to do so. The CDC director is talking out of both sides of his mouth and is now officially an idiot.

Stop blaming the victim and place the blame directly on the shoulders of the people in charge who have caused and fueled the fire of this calamity.

[Marie]

You get a fever and tell me how you caught it. I got the flu from my husband last winter and it nearly killed both of us. He has NO idea where he caught it. Ebola spreads exactly like the flu.

[Fantasywriter]

You are dodging my point. I said he knew he had had close, prolonged, active contact with a person dying of Ebola. According to you, he should have mentioned that FACT during his initial hospital visit. He did not.

[Marie]

http://jid.oxfordjournals.org/content/179/Supplement_1/S11.long

the moratality for pregnant women diagnosed with ebola is 95.5% the fetus never survives. the virus attacks the fetus. it’s horrible. even women at full-term are not immune to the destruction.

the fetus liquifies.

[Marie]

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/10/02/america-s-patient-zero-was-trying-to-save-a-pregnant-ebola-victim.html

Ebola in pregnant women. It’s a death sentence.

[Mark17]

He was a man of color with no health insurance and no means to pay for treatment

When the guy was sick, I knew in my heart of hearts, that if he died, the race card would be played in a hurry, and it was.

[Marie]

With this in mind, NO pregnant nurse or doctor should be NEAR an Ebola patient. Where is the CDC on *this*?? Has the CDC *ever* put out that warning to nurses or hospitals?

I’m furious at the incompetence of our bureaucracy.

[seeker41]

He just wants money, chances are he barely knew his supposed uncle!

[nascarnation]

Dems were playing the race card on this long before now.

Limbaugh had a poll showing 57% of black Americans agreed with the statement:

“Ebola would be cured by now if it was occurring in the United States”

[nuconvert]

Color means nothing. If he had no insurance & no means to pay, that’s what mattered, black, brown, white, purple.

[TigersEye]

Blame 0bamaCare.

Scandal: Wealthy Obama Donor Behind Epic Ebola Fail

Last week, Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital revealed in a statement that a procedural flaw in its online health records system led to potentially deadly miscommunication between nurses and doctors. The facility sent Ebola victim Thomas Duncan home despite showing signs of the disease -- only to admit him with worse symptoms three days later.

Here's what I can tell you for sure: Texas Health contracts with Epic Systems for its electronic medical records system -- and the Dallas hospital isn't the only client that has complained about its costly information-sharing flaws and interoperability failures.

[Conscience of a Conservative]

I didn’t dodge your point. I said that he may not have known she had Ebola. The person dying of Ebola was pregnant. As other have mentioned, Ebola in a pregnant woman looks very different from Ebola in other people, and in fact looks a lot like a miscarriage. In a place like Liberia, with much more limited prenatal care than we have here, maternal mortality rates are significantly higher.

[Christie at the beach]

I am sorry but what are you talking about. This scenario. Thomas Duncan told his friend in Liberia, he wanted to get to America because he was frightened that he had Ebola. His friend said while he agreed with Duncan’s thinking, to get to a better country with better medical care; he thought Duncan was very wrong not to inform the hospital on day 1 when he was in the ER that a few days prior, he had been handling victims of Ebola and 2 of those patients had died.

Yes, some ERs have inefficient staff/ medical teams. I have been through that several times. In this case, Duncan should have told the ER staff of his travel history and the patients he was with; to protect the other innocent workers and people visiting the hospital for many reasons. Duncan, himself lost a few days of treatment for not disclosing this data.