Ebola Victim's Nephew: I Had to Call CDC

[pnwmom]

Source: nbcnews

Thomas Eric Duncan, the first person diagnosed with the Ebola virus in the U.S., wasn't appropriately treated for suspected infection until after his nephew personally called the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the nephew told NBC News on Wednesday night, saying he hoped "nobody else got infected because of a mistake that was made."

Health officials have acknowledged that Duncan, 42, was initially sent home from Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas when he showed up on Sept. 26 complaining of fever and abdominal pain. He was sent home and had to return two days later in an ambulance.

That was the day "I called CDC to get some actions taken, because I was concerned for his life and he wasn't getting the appropriate care," Duncan's nephew, Josephus Weeks, told NBC News on Wednesday night. "I feared other people might also get infected if he wasn't taken care of, and so I called them to ask them why is it a patient that might be suspected of this disease was not getting appropriate care?"

Weeks said the CDC referred him to the Texas Department of Health and Human Services, which spoke to him and then took appropriate action. "I called the CDC and they instructed me of the process, and that got the ball rolling," Weeks said.

SNIP


Read more: http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/ebola-virus-outbreak/ebola-victims-nephew-i-had-call-cdc-n216326

---

So much for all the CDC claims that the US medical system was completely up to the task of handling Ebola.

[Renew Deal]

1. "I've got Ebola." "You got me a cola?" No,

"I've got Ebola." "Oh, I'm a bowler too."

[tomm2thumbs]

2. "When your fever is high and there's pain in your thighs... that's Ebola!"

my apologies, but 'abdominals' didn't rhyme...

[xocet]

7. "When your fever is high abominable and your pain is quite abdominal...that's Ebola!" (See below)

The tune was pointed out to me below: "When your fever is up and there's pain in your gut...that's ebola!"

[starroute]

9. Doesn't go to the same tune

Last edited Thu Oct 2, 2014, 11:28 AM - Edit history (1)

[xocet]

11. Thanks for the video. I didn't recognize the tune. How about the following line?

"When your fever is up and there's pain in your gut...that's ebola!"

All in all that would be a macabre song if it were completed.

[Sopkoviak]

3. Ya but see America is equipped to handle this problem

And I know that because Obama said so at the CDC a few weeks ago.

I mean what could possibly go wrong?

Of course that was after he was on an elevator with a convicted felon with a gun in his pocket.

Maybe after the mid-terms we'll get the full story.

Wouldn't want to jeopardize the elections.

[C Moon]

4. Huh??? Am I on Yahoo News right now?

[freshwest]

8. Feels that way some days.

[alcibiades_mystery]

14. Ebola! Thanks, Obama!

There's nothing funnier than people who are mad because they've been told to calm down. They're hopping mad about being told to calm down!

People done lost they minds.

[jwirr]

28. This was a human err. The nurse who sent him home should made the mistake. Either she does not pay

attention to what is happening in the world like many Americans or she is not a good nurse. That in no way says anything about America being equipped to handle this. Hopefully this will be a learning experience for hospitals and clinics all over the country to make sure their staff is aware of what they should be looking for.

[CoffeeCat]

36. Yes, but most people do not know geography...

Seriously. I'm not being a smart ass. I bet if you asked 100 random US citizens where Liberia is--that maybe 30 percent of them would know that it is in Africa.

I bet that when this man was first at the ER, that he probably told a couple of people that he had been in Liberia--and they didn't even know that this was a county in Africa.

Sometimes it's just that simple. We're human beings after all.

That's why the CDC's assurances really are hollow. I'm sure they're doing everything possible to inform the medical community, but human beings are imperfect. We make mistakes daily. And prior to this man in Texas having Ebola, people in the US really didn't expect it to arrive here.

In fact…it was the CDC, just a few weeks ago--that assured us that Ebola in the US was unlikely.

Seriously people. Think about that.

[AverageJoe90]

37. It actually really *was* unlikely.

Unfortunately, though, I guess it just so happens that the unlikely scenario is the one that came true. Luck of the draw, as it were.....

[thecrow]

40. So, this black guy comes into the ER...

has no insurance... maybe has a strange accent?
Send him home!

What did they really think would happen?
Thank God that his nephew stepped up to the situation.

[jwirr]

43. Agreed. When we have an epidemic going on anywhere in the world eveyone should be taken seriously.

[flying_wahini]

42. as a former nurse, I object

The nurse stated that she told the MD twice of the patient's travel history. Perhaps the MD blew her off and
didn't want her/his diagnosis to be disputed, or he had too many admissions that shift.
Who knows; but blaming the nurse is par for the course. Just because the MD failed does not make her
"a bad nurse".

[jwirr]

44. I have already apologized for saying this. I have a granddaughter who is an RN. I am guilty of not

reading the whole OP. I had not noticed that the MD made the decision. Should send him into the homes of all the people who are now being quarantined. Do you know if the nurse is one of the people who was exposed or did she have protective clothing? It is hard to be the first one in the line.

[littlemissmartypants]

5. Tough crowd in this thread tonight. Thanks for the post. nt

[NBachers]

6. Ferget it, Jake - it's Texas

[Iliyah]

10. please don't tell me that the reason why he was sent home was

because of lack of health insurance and or coverage. Yes the CDC notified medical facilities of the symptoms of eloba.

[Skittles]

13. of course that's what it was

they see no insurance, they hand you whatever they think will get you out the door the fastest

[KurtNYC]

26. in ER jargon: Wallet-oscopy

[Skittles]

12. so essentially, the nephew had to do the hospital's job

that is very bad

[Scairp]

15. Such incompetence

I'm really shocked this happened. I hope no one dies of this because the guy didn't get treatment, was sent home in fact, after he began feel and be ill. They keep yelling about how you cannot get this virus until after you are feverish but there he was, being obviously sick and they send him home. WITH an antibiotic too. It could possibly be malpractice.

[pnwmom]

17. And even more incompetence. It was two days after he was admitted to the hospital,

when they finally took the ambulance and its crew out of circulation. So anyone riding in it during that time could have been exposed.

[kath]

16. Sent home with ANTIBIOTICS???

Last edited Thu Oct 2, 2014, 05:55 AM - Edit history (1)

What the hell type of BACTERIAL infection did they think they were treating at that point, when he reportedly presented with fever and abdominal pain??!?

Such rank incompetence.

[pnwmom]

18. They claim they thought it was an ordinary virus. So why did they treat with antibiotics?

Unbelievable.

[Scairp]

19. Yeah

They throw antibiotics at everything in the ER. Unbelievable how dumb educated people can be.

[MrsBrady]

20. Local news is reporting that Duncan threw up outside his family's apartment complex

I live in the DFW area:
Local news is now reporting:

that he threw up OUTSIDE of the apartment complex waiting or being picked
up by the ambulance on his 2nd trip to the hospital


I think the hospital dropped the ball on the first trip to the hospital...
the minute he said he had come from Liberia and was showing symptoms, they should have taken more action...
I've seen medical staff think if you don't need something they just poo poo your request.

I don't know weather the nurse or Dr who authorized his release should be held accountable, but....I don't know what the answer is.

I know I've experienced doctors, nurses...you tell them what's wrong, you know what's wrong and they don't believe you or think they know better...
and three days later we were back in a worse situation with a family member of mine....not Ebola of course, but this happens all the time with medical staff.

And I am not knocking medical staff because I currently have a PCP who actually gives a shit and a local mom/pop urgent care doc, who owns his own clinic, that probably saved my life from a bad bad bad bad kidney infection when he told me I needed to get to the ER...and his call was right....I would have hate to have thought what would have happened if he'd just said ok, go get this prescription and call me if it gets worse...because an hour later I had a fever that would have killed me without a hospital.

[notadmblnd]

21. you're talking about the triage nurse?

Hell, all she wants is that insurance card and you out of her face filling out forms somewhere.

[Sancho]

22. Chances are that a doctor would be in big trouble admitting a non-insured international patient...

so they likely have an unwritten policy of giving an antibiotic and pain killer to anyone who can still walk and sending them out the door.

It's clear they didn't really diagnosis anything or even look at the history (except the part with no US insurance card). Texas is like Florida - did not accept federal medicaid - so they don't want anyone who will cost them $$'s.

If one of those kids caught ebola and was in an early stage of incubation (2 to 21 days), it's still possible they could have transferred it around a school.

I'd like to see the patient record and diagnosis, which the hospital will never reveal and has probably been altered by now anyway. I'll bet they spent 2 minutes to decide he wasn't on the verge of a heart attack, CYA a prescription, and moved him out. No one cared why he was sick - no insurance!!

[jwirr]

29. You may be very correct about the hospital policy regarding uninsured patients. IF so heads should

roll.

[spike91nz]

23. One must wonder how much our response has been compromised by the corporate class

soaking up collective resources and funneling public funding into military adventures in service to oil interests. If the cost of sustaining the new plutocratic elite is the corruption of society's capacity to respond to collective threats then those who have, by design, guided us to the astounding state of economic inequality and political disenfranchisement of the public will not only hold responsibility for the demise of democracy and the reduction of the market to a rentier stagnation, but hold responsibility for the untold human misery and death unfolding from our inability to collectively respond to environmental, medical and biological threats in a timely fashion.

[snagglepuss]

31. Hear Hear. The ability to respond collectively being threatened is an

excellent point. THis should be a thread unto itself. Welcome to DU.

[brer cat]

24. Chill, folks.

Rick Perry: “Rest assured, our system is working as it should.”

Now, don't you all feel soooo much better about this?

[treestar]

25. One incident does not mean that the entire system is going to make the same mistakes

This hospital in TX does a thing, and that doesn't mean that if he had showed up anywhere else it would be the same.

[christx30]

30. I think you're right.

Now that everyone's alarm bells are ringing, there are going to be a lot more careful people out there. I think it might correct to the other side with a lot of false positives. But there will be balance, and our system is going to stop it from getting really bad here.

[pnwmom]

33. True. But it means the whole system better get on top of this, fast.

And they better figure out NOW what to do with all the contagious waste.

[whereisjustice]

27. wait until they get the bill, have a defibrillator ready.

[Dopers_Greed]

32. The US's for-profit healthcare system is increasing the risk of an outbreak

People are going to wait as long as possible to get care.

[yellowcanine]

34. Hey Ricky, How is that "No Medicaid Expansion" working out for you?

Inquiring minds want to know.....

[Psephos]

35. No problem. Prez and CDC both assure us it's all under control.

Last month the line was that it couldn't come here.

[AverageJoe90]

38. See post 37. nt

[YOHABLO]

39. They're more worried about being "attacked by ISIS" than the country being infected with EBOLA !!

[thecrow]

41. Maybe we should attack ISIS with ebola?

Anyone?

[xocet]

45. Terrible idea - that is on par with some of the R's wanting to 'glass' the Middle East. n/t