DALLAS — Thomas Eric Duncan’s temperature spiked to 103 degrees during the hours of his initial visit to an emergency room — a fever that was flagged with an exclamation point in the hospital’s record-keeping system, his medical records show.
Despite telling a nurse that he had recently been in Africa and displaying other symptoms that could indicate Ebola, the man who would become the only person to die from the disease in the United States underwent a battery of tests and was eventually sent home.
Duncan’s family provided his medical records to the Associated Press — more than 1,400 pages in all. They encompass his time in the ER, his urgent return to the hospital two days later, and his steep decline as his organs began to fail.
In a statement issued Friday, Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital said it had made procedural changes and continues to ‘‘review and evaluate’’ the decisions surrounding Duncan’s care.
Duncan carried the deadly virus with him from his home in Liberia, though he showed no symptoms when he left for the United States. He arrived in Dallas on Sept. 20 and fell ill several days later.
When he first showed up at the hospital, Duncan complained of abdominal pain, dizziness, a headache, and decreased urination. He reported severe pain — rating it an eight on a scale of 10.
Doctors gave him CT scans to rule out appendicitis, stroke, and numerous other serious ailments. Ultimately, he was prescribed antibiotics and told to take Tylenol, then returned to the apartment where he was staying with a Dallas woman and three other people.
‘‘I have given patient instructions regarding their diagnosis, expectations for the next couple of days, and specific return precautions,’’ according to the emergency room physician’s note. ‘‘The condition of the patient at this time is stable.’’
After Duncan’s condition worsened, someone in the apartment called 911, and paramedics took him back to the hospital on Sept. 28. That is when he was admitted and swiftly put in isolation.
Josephus Weeks, Duncan’s nephew, said the care his uncle received was ‘‘either incompetence or negligence.’’
Either way ‘‘there is a problem, and we need to find the answer to it,’’ he said, adding that it was ‘‘conspicuous’’ that all the white Ebola patients in the United States survived ‘‘and the one black man died.’’
****************
Doctors who evaluated Duncan did not respond to messages left at their offices by the AP.
A spokeswoman for the Texas Department of State Health Services said the agency was considering investigating the hospital for compliance with state health and safety laws.
After it became clear that Duncan was suffering from Ebola, another option would have been to give him a transfusion from an Ebola survivor in the hopes that antibodies in the survivor’s blood could help him fight off the disease.
But Duncan did not receive such a transfusion because the blood types did not match, the hospital said.
--more--"
Related: U.S. Government Has Ebola Epidemic Under Control
Meaning it is out of control.
The beginning of the end:
But no one else says the CDC.
"After Ebola death, a succession of ‘what ifs?’" by Manny Fernandez and Dave Philipps | New York Times October 09, 2014DALLAS — The death Wednesday morning of Thomas Eric Duncan, 42, the Liberian man at the center of a widening public health scare and the first person with a case of Ebola to be diagnosed in the United States, heightened anxiety and fear here. It also renewed questions about whether a delay in receiving treatment could have played a role in his death and what role it played in the possibility of his spreading the disease to others.
His death came on a day when a sergeant with the Dallas County sheriff’s office who had been in the apartment where Duncan had been staying was rushed to the hospital and monitored for possible exposure to Ebola.
Federal health officials said that they had not confirmed whether the sergeant, Michael Monnig, had definite contact with Ebola or definite symptoms of the virus, but that he was being assessed. Officials said it could take about 48 hours before they were certain of his condition. He was not one of the 48 people being monitored for the disease.
While there were condolences expressed throughout this city over Duncan’s death, there were also renewed questions about the handling of Duncan’s case by Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas, and about whether Duncan would still be alive had he been admitted to the hospital when he first went to its emergency room on Sept. 25.
*************
Dr. Thomas R. Frieden, director of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told reporters Wednesday that although Ebola is fatal in a high proportion of patients, it was important for the disease to be diagnosed early.
“The earlier someone is diagnosed, the more likely they will be able to survive,” Frieden said.
He declined to speculate on whether the delay contributed to Duncan’s death.
CDC, VA, it's all the same.
But agency officials have said generally about treating Ebola patients that using basic interventions — including intravenous fluids and electrolytes, and maintaining blood pressure — can significantly improve the chances of survival.
Referring to the sheriff’s sergeant being treated and monitored at Texas Health Presbyterian, Frieden said communities should be vigilant but prepared for false reports of the virus as fear of it spreads. “There will be rumors and concerns and potential cases, and that is how it should be,” he said.
From a government that specializes in fear, as proved by the vast array of ISIS stories I see every day, every day, every day.
Duncan died at 7:51 a.m. Wednesday at Texas Health Presbyterian, eight days after the virus was detected in him on Sept. 30. State officials, following guidelines issued by the CDC on the safe handling of the remains of Ebola patients, recommended to Duncan’s relatives that he be cremated, and the family agreed.
Texas Health Presbyterian at first blamed a problem with its electronic records system for Duncan’s release after his first visit, but it later reversed itself and said the system had operated correctly.
The first is supposed to be a tenet of Obummercare, and the second lie made me sick.
It remains unclear why, and how, the hospital did not view Duncan as a potential Ebola case during his first visit to its emergency room, since both the nurses and the doctor had access to the critical information that although his symptoms were not severe, he had recently traveled from Africa....
Meaning a cover-up is in place.
--more--"
Yeah, “what if, what if?”
Also see: Tests clear doctor of Ebola, CDC says
Well.... he's sick again, huh?
You know what you do? Blame the truth theorists!
"Political talk adds to Ebola apprehension" by Noah Bierman | Globe Staff October 08, 2014
WASHINGTON — Senator Rand Paul, the Kentucky Republican, says US troops returning from service in West Africa could help bring Ebola to American shores.
I was worried about that, too.
Related: New Hampshire general helps Ebola effort in Africa
Oh, nothing to worry about then.
Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas Republican governor, warns that the American government cannot be trusted to combat the threat. Senator Mark Pryor, an Arkansas Democrat, charges that his Republican opponent favors billionaires instead of supporting preparation for an outbreak.
Related: The Next Republican Nominee For President
It's not Buckahee.
The Ebola crisis in West Africa has entered a new sphere: political season in America.
The rhetoric spreading fears about an outbreak comes at a time when President Obama has low approval ratings, weeks before the midterm elections, and just as potential 2016 presidential candidates start to carve niches within their parties.
If that ever isn't the pot-hollering-kettle crap media!
Public health specialists worry the ramped-up rhetoric, amplified on partisan shows on cable television and radio talk programs, will spark an increase in panic over exaggerated Ebola fears, and undermine work by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
OMG, look at the hypocrisy!
And speaking of parti$an media....
“They’re frightening people,” said Barry R. Bloom, a former dean of the Harvard School of Public Health. “How do you convince people [to appreciate the true level of risk] that believe that our government is lying and that the CDC and its guidelines are not to be trusted?”
Well, you no longer can because of what has turned out to be decades upon decades of lies being told to the people; however, I'll make it easier for you and just go with the last 15 years. There are so many to name, from economy to environment to war to innocuous items that I would be here all night thinking and listing them. Some would involve the very government protecting us using us as guinea pigs for biological, chemical, and nuclear tests.
And they wonder why we don't believe them?
“How do you convey to them what the real risk is likely to be?” Bloom said.
Paul is an ophthalmologist, and, like Huckabee, a potential 2016 Republican presidential candidate. He warned last week that “political correctness” is causing public health officials to play down the potential threat. Then he added another dose of fear.
ISIS.
“There are people getting it who simply helped people get in or out of a taxicab,” he said on Laura Ingraham’s conservative radio show.
The CDC says on its website that Ebola can spread by transmission of bodily fluids, including sweat, but not by air or water.
The Obama administration this week said it would increase airport screening, but it resisted broader calls from some politicians in both parties to stop air travel from West Africa.
Add that to the growing list of impeachable offenses, will you?
Several public health specialists said they understand why there would be calls to close the borders — given that isolation is a key tool in controlling the outbreak. They argued, however, that it would be counterproductive and ineffective, saying that efforts should be focused on controlling the virus in West Africa to protect people there and in the United States.
Obama, in trying to reassure the public, left himself open to second-guessing by his critics when he said last month that it was “unlikely” that someone with the disease would be able to enter the United States.
These guys are so damn worried about illu$ion and imagery they don't care about an epidemic!
Nine days later, a man from Liberia who reportedly indicated on his travel form that he had not been exposed to the virus landed in Texas, went to the emergency room, and was released — only to return to the hospital and get diagnosed with Ebola and admitted. That led to questions about whether hospitals in Texas and airport officials nationwide have followed appropriate procedures.
Yeah, we know who he was.
Still, public health specialists say they have been taken aback by some of the sharper rhetoric that has ensued. Some members of Congress who have urged tougher immigration enforcement — including Representatives Phil Gingrey, a Georgia Republican and physician, and Todd Rokita, an Indiana Republican — have asserted that unaccompanied minors crossing the southern border with Mexico could pose a risk of transmitting Ebola, which public health specialists say is a far-fetched concern at best.
Related: Enterovirus More Deadly Than Ebola
But shhhh! You are a racist if you point out where it came from.
“It strikes me that there has been an increase on political stances taken on things that might have in the past been seen as apolitical problems,” said Dr. Jeffrey P. Koplan, a former CDC director who is vice president for global health at Emory University. “There’s the opportunity for people to try to use a crisis like this to try to further some existing political agenda.”
Oh, yeah, we are well aware of that stuff, too.
The rhetoric could prove more dangerous as flu season begins, because the symptoms closely mirror the early symptoms of Ebola, specialists say.
“If there’s a hysteria about Ebola and the risks are overblown, you’re going to have emergency rooms clogged with people who really have the flu,” Bloom said.
Flu kills more people every year than these other things they are always throwing at us.
Bloom and others concede that at least a few more infected people could enter the country, but stress that the American public health system is well prepared for it.
Related: US health providers expand their Ebola precautions
Well, somewhat prepared if you ignore Dallas.
Huckabee, a former presidential candidate, sowed seeds of suspicion during his Fox News show over the weekend.
“The Ebola scare goes to the heart of a simple question: Do you trust the government?” he said.
Then he turned to his live audience and asked pointedly: “Do you trust the government?”
“No,” they responded.
Neither do I. Sorry. They earned the mistrust with the endless lies to $erve other intere$ts.
“And why would you?” Huckabee said as he played clips touching on a series of hot-button political issues including Obama’s health care law and the response to the deadly attack on a US facility in Benghazi, Libya.
Yeah, it's all the talk show hosts fault for exercising their right to free speech. Forget this failure of an administration that has governed for six years.
Republicans have not been the only ones to use Ebola as a political issue. Pryor, the Arkansas Democrat, aired an advertisement in August showing images of medical workers in hazardous materials suits amid scary news reports about the outbreak.
Notice how that is an afterthought?
Then he accused his Republican opponent, Representative Tom Cotton, of voting “against preparing America for pandemics like Ebola” while instead voting “for tax cuts for billionaires funding his campaign, rather than protecting our families.”
Pryor was criticized for the ad. Then on Tuesday, MSNBC aired a video that showed how treacherous the politics of Ebola can be. Asked by a reporter whether Obama, who has been unpopular in Arkansas, has responded appropriately to the crisis, Pryor paused, stammered, and rambled.
That explains a certain ex-president's recent visit.
“Um, I would say that — it’s hard to know because, um, I haven’t heard the latest briefing on that,” he said.
Some Republicans have tried to push the GOP away from Paul’s isolationist tendencies.
He's not going to win the nomination. I wonder if they will let him in the building, unlike his father.
Al Cardenas, the immediate past chairman of the American Conservative Union and a close ally of former Florida governor Jeb Bush and Senator Marco Rubio, called Paul’s views on Ebola “short-sighted.”
“Something like Ebola inspires fear and fear appeals to our lower instincts at times,” Cardenas said. “Politicians are not exempt from these feelings.”
9/11 being far and away the greatest example in the current age.
--more--"
I went to the CVS today and the three-pack of colored pens I use to highlight and edit read Globes are no longer being carried. The Globe's la$t days may be coming up for me.
You know what you do? Blame the truth theorists!
"Political talk adds to Ebola apprehension" by Noah Bierman | Globe Staff October 08, 2014
WASHINGTON — Senator Rand Paul, the Kentucky Republican, says US troops returning from service in West Africa could help bring Ebola to American shores.
I was worried about that, too.
Related: New Hampshire general helps Ebola effort in Africa
Oh, nothing to worry about then.
Mike Huckabee, the former Arkansas Republican governor, warns that the American government cannot be trusted to combat the threat. Senator Mark Pryor, an Arkansas Democrat, charges that his Republican opponent favors billionaires instead of supporting preparation for an outbreak.
Related: The Next Republican Nominee For President
It's not Buckahee.
The Ebola crisis in West Africa has entered a new sphere: political season in America.
The rhetoric spreading fears about an outbreak comes at a time when President Obama has low approval ratings, weeks before the midterm elections, and just as potential 2016 presidential candidates start to carve niches within their parties.
If that ever isn't the pot-hollering-kettle crap media!
Public health specialists worry the ramped-up rhetoric, amplified on partisan shows on cable television and radio talk programs, will spark an increase in panic over exaggerated Ebola fears, and undermine work by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
OMG, look at the hypocrisy!
And speaking of parti$an media....
“They’re frightening people,” said Barry R. Bloom, a former dean of the Harvard School of Public Health. “How do you convince people [to appreciate the true level of risk] that believe that our government is lying and that the CDC and its guidelines are not to be trusted?”
Well, you no longer can because of what has turned out to be decades upon decades of lies being told to the people; however, I'll make it easier for you and just go with the last 15 years. There are so many to name, from economy to environment to war to innocuous items that I would be here all night thinking and listing them. Some would involve the very government protecting us using us as guinea pigs for biological, chemical, and nuclear tests.
And they wonder why we don't believe them?
“How do you convey to them what the real risk is likely to be?” Bloom said.
Paul is an ophthalmologist, and, like Huckabee, a potential 2016 Republican presidential candidate. He warned last week that “political correctness” is causing public health officials to play down the potential threat. Then he added another dose of fear.
ISIS.
“There are people getting it who simply helped people get in or out of a taxicab,” he said on Laura Ingraham’s conservative radio show.
The CDC says on its website that Ebola can spread by transmission of bodily fluids, including sweat, but not by air or water.
The Obama administration this week said it would increase airport screening, but it resisted broader calls from some politicians in both parties to stop air travel from West Africa.
Add that to the growing list of impeachable offenses, will you?
Several public health specialists said they understand why there would be calls to close the borders — given that isolation is a key tool in controlling the outbreak. They argued, however, that it would be counterproductive and ineffective, saying that efforts should be focused on controlling the virus in West Africa to protect people there and in the United States.
Obama, in trying to reassure the public, left himself open to second-guessing by his critics when he said last month that it was “unlikely” that someone with the disease would be able to enter the United States.
These guys are so damn worried about illu$ion and imagery they don't care about an epidemic!
Nine days later, a man from Liberia who reportedly indicated on his travel form that he had not been exposed to the virus landed in Texas, went to the emergency room, and was released — only to return to the hospital and get diagnosed with Ebola and admitted. That led to questions about whether hospitals in Texas and airport officials nationwide have followed appropriate procedures.
Yeah, we know who he was.
Still, public health specialists say they have been taken aback by some of the sharper rhetoric that has ensued. Some members of Congress who have urged tougher immigration enforcement — including Representatives Phil Gingrey, a Georgia Republican and physician, and Todd Rokita, an Indiana Republican — have asserted that unaccompanied minors crossing the southern border with Mexico could pose a risk of transmitting Ebola, which public health specialists say is a far-fetched concern at best.
Related: Enterovirus More Deadly Than Ebola
But shhhh! You are a racist if you point out where it came from.
“It strikes me that there has been an increase on political stances taken on things that might have in the past been seen as apolitical problems,” said Dr. Jeffrey P. Koplan, a former CDC director who is vice president for global health at Emory University. “There’s the opportunity for people to try to use a crisis like this to try to further some existing political agenda.”
Oh, yeah, we are well aware of that stuff, too.
The rhetoric could prove more dangerous as flu season begins, because the symptoms closely mirror the early symptoms of Ebola, specialists say.
“If there’s a hysteria about Ebola and the risks are overblown, you’re going to have emergency rooms clogged with people who really have the flu,” Bloom said.
Flu kills more people every year than these other things they are always throwing at us.
Bloom and others concede that at least a few more infected people could enter the country, but stress that the American public health system is well prepared for it.
Related: US health providers expand their Ebola precautions
Well, somewhat prepared if you ignore Dallas.
Huckabee, a former presidential candidate, sowed seeds of suspicion during his Fox News show over the weekend.
“The Ebola scare goes to the heart of a simple question: Do you trust the government?” he said.
Then he turned to his live audience and asked pointedly: “Do you trust the government?”
“No,” they responded.
Neither do I. Sorry. They earned the mistrust with the endless lies to $erve other intere$ts.
“And why would you?” Huckabee said as he played clips touching on a series of hot-button political issues including Obama’s health care law and the response to the deadly attack on a US facility in Benghazi, Libya.
Yeah, it's all the talk show hosts fault for exercising their right to free speech. Forget this failure of an administration that has governed for six years.
Republicans have not been the only ones to use Ebola as a political issue. Pryor, the Arkansas Democrat, aired an advertisement in August showing images of medical workers in hazardous materials suits amid scary news reports about the outbreak.
Notice how that is an afterthought?
Then he accused his Republican opponent, Representative Tom Cotton, of voting “against preparing America for pandemics like Ebola” while instead voting “for tax cuts for billionaires funding his campaign, rather than protecting our families.”
Pryor was criticized for the ad. Then on Tuesday, MSNBC aired a video that showed how treacherous the politics of Ebola can be. Asked by a reporter whether Obama, who has been unpopular in Arkansas, has responded appropriately to the crisis, Pryor paused, stammered, and rambled.
That explains a certain ex-president's recent visit.
“Um, I would say that — it’s hard to know because, um, I haven’t heard the latest briefing on that,” he said.
Some Republicans have tried to push the GOP away from Paul’s isolationist tendencies.
He's not going to win the nomination. I wonder if they will let him in the building, unlike his father.
Al Cardenas, the immediate past chairman of the American Conservative Union and a close ally of former Florida governor Jeb Bush and Senator Marco Rubio, called Paul’s views on Ebola “short-sighted.”
“Something like Ebola inspires fear and fear appeals to our lower instincts at times,” Cardenas said. “Politicians are not exempt from these feelings.”
9/11 being far and away the greatest example in the current age.
--more--"
I went to the CVS today and the three-pack of colored pens I use to highlight and edit read Globes are no longer being carried. The Globe's la$t days may be coming up for me.
