Feeling Ebola Anxiety, From Bellevue to Brooklyn(snip)
At Bellevue Hospital Center in Manhattan, where Craig A. Spencer, the doctor who contracted the Ebola virus, was being treated on the seventh floor, anxiety spread along the corridors. The news that a highly trained doctor had failed to protect himself against the disease had some employees so worried that a few nurses sought to opt out of working on that floor, said Georgiana Ochilly, 59, a veteran nurse there.
“We’re wondering how Ebola is being spread. Is it airborne? There is a lot of concern about it,” said Ms. Ochilly, of St. Albans, Queens, who was finishing a 12-hour shift around 8:30 a.m.
Ms. Ochilly, who works mostly with newborn babies, said she was also concerned that the staff in general was not ready to confront Ebola. She said that she had not been offered any training on dealing with the disease until Thursday morning.
“I don’t think they are prepared yet for the situation,” she said of the hospital, contradicting the pronouncements of Mayor Bill de Blasio and Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo that the city’s hospitals stand ready to handle Ebola patients.
(snip)