Texas' Ebola nightmare started last month when Dallas' Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital sent a feverish Thomas Eric Duncan home two days before it isolated him. Officials apologized Wednesday for not diagnosing him correctly earlier. One of the two nurses who treated Duncan and developed Ebola flew a day before she was diagnosed — but she might have been symptomatic on the plane, the CDC warned.
Dallas' Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital admitted it made mistakes in its handling of the first Ebola patient diagnosed in the U.S.
Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital admitted it made mistakes in its handling of the first Ebola patient diagnosed in the U.S.
The Texas hospital that sent a contagious Ebola patient home is saying sorry.
Dallas' Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital admitted it not handle its first Ebola case correctly: two of its staffers who treated "patient zero" were infected with the virus, one of whom flew across the country just before she was diagnosed, setting off national panic of possible uncontained exposure.
"Despite our best intentions and a highly skilled medical team, we made mistakes," Dr. Daniel Varga, the chief clinical officer for Texas Health Services, said in a Wednesday night statement.
Thomas Eric Duncan went to the emergency room last month with a fever. Workers sent him home even after he mentioned he recently traveled to Liberia. The staff finally isolated him days later when he returned.
He died on Oct. 8.
"We did not correctly diagnose his symptoms as those of Ebola. We are deeply sorry," Varga said.
But two of the 77 staffers treating Duncan have developed the disease, likely from a "breach in protocol," the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention explained.
Nurse Nina Pham was diagnosed with the virus Sunday. She is being treated at the hospital and is in improved condition.
The second nurse, Amber Vinson, was diagnosed Tuesday, a day after she flew from Ohio back to Dallas.
Amber Vinson, a nurse who treated Duncan, was diagnosed with Ebola Tuesday, a day after she took a Frontier Airlines flight from Ohio to Dallas.
The CDC and Frontier Airlines originally reassured the Flight 1143's other 132 passengers that Vinson was asymptomatic while on the flight and only developed a fever after she was back in Texas. Ebola patients are not contagious until after they show symptoms.
But on Wednesday, Frontier's CEO David Siegel said health officials warned him Vinson "may have been symptomatic earlier than initially suspected; including the possibility of possessing symptoms while onboard the flight," NBC News reported.
The six crew members on Flight 1143 — two pilots and four flight attendants — have been placed on a 21-day leave to watch for symptoms.
"She should not have traveled on a commercial airline,” said Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Tom Frieden.
But the stricken nurse called the CDC before she got on the plane — and the organization gave her the green light because her 99.5-degree temperature didn’t reach the threshold of 100.4 degrees.
The CDC urged all passengers to contact them as a precautionary measure. Still, the risk of Vinson infecting any other travelers is low, President Barack Obama said Wednesday.
“I know people are concerned about the fact that the second health care worker traveled,” he said.
“It’s not like the flu, it’s not airborne. The likelihood for widespread Ebola outbreaks in this country is very low.”
Vinson was airlifted to Emory University Hospital late Wednesday. The Atlanta facility is one of four in the U.S. with specialized Ebola isolation units.
At Emory, Vinson will be treated alongside a second Ebola patient, a WHO doctor who developed the disease in Sierra Leone.
Vinson was airlifted to Emory University Hospital Wednesday. She will be treated alongside a second Ebola patient, a WHO doctor who developed the disease in Sierra Leone.
The Dallas hospital does not have one of the units.
Emory has treated three other Ebola patients, all of whom were airlifted from West Africa where they caught the lethal virus.
Dr. Kent Brantly and Nancy Writebol recovered from the disease and were released in August. A third, unidentified patient — a WHO doctor who worked in Sierra Leone — arrived at Emory on Sept. 9.
The hospital quietly took in the third patient, and remained tightlipped about his or her prognosis for weeks. Finally, on Wednesday, the hospital said the patient is "on the way to a full recovery," CBS News reported.
The CDC warned Frontier that Vinson Vinson ‘may have been symptomatic earlier than initially suspected’ — and she was possibly feverish on the plane.
The 2014 Ebola outbreak is concentrated in three West African countries: Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. Cases have been reported in Senegal and Nigeria, too.
Since the March onset of the outbreak, 8399 people have developed the disease. At least 4033 of those cases were fatal, the World Health organization reported.
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