Posted on 10/13/2014 5:45:02 PM PDT by tcrlaf
They drew his blood, put tubes down his throat and wiped up his diarrhea. They analyzed his urine and wiped saliva from his lips, even after he had lost consciousness.
About 70 staff members at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital were involved in the care of Thomas Eric Duncan after he was hospitalized, including a nurse now being treated for the same Ebola virus that killed the Liberian man who was visiting Dallas, according to medical records his family provided to The Associated Press.
The nurse’s family identified her as 26-year-old Nina Pham. She decided to go to the hospital after developing a low fever.
The size of the medical team reflects the hospital’s intense effort to save Duncan’s life, but it also suggests that many other people could have been exposed to the virus during Duncan’s time in an isolation unit.
On Monday, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the infection of the nurse means the agency must broaden the pool of people getting close monitoring. Authorities have said they do not know how the nurse was infected, but they suspect some kind of breach in the hospital’s protocol.
The medical records given to the AP offer clues, both to what happened and who was involved, but the hospital says the CDC does not have them.
Dr. Carole Lieberman, a Beverly Hills psychiatrist who studies mental health epidemiology, said the apparent breach is a grave concern that she compared to ‘‘a puddle of gasoline that is spreading out, and the match could be lit at any time.’’
(Excerpt) Read more at bostonglobe.com ...
“I heard that number, 70, earlier and can’t believe it. How stupid are these people? You want the least number of people necessary to be in contact.”
As explained on another website, this represents days off, different shifts, different departments, etc...
In a Union Hospital, you aren’t going to get 24/7 coverage with just one or two people.
You are correct. Also, it is not just the nurses who are in contact with the patient. Think about the staff in the laboratory and the radiology departments, just to name a few and consider staffing these places 25 hours a day, 5 days a week. As a retired medical laboratory technologist, I am wondering how they handled all the various lab specs that came from that one patient. Did they set up a miniature lab separate from the main lab to avoid cross contamination and spread of the Ebola virus?
Oh, and I am certain this man was on dialysis which requires specialists around the clock too. I wonder how man of those isolation suits a hospital needs to take care of just one patient?
Good catch, the journalism these days...ughhh
My sister works in the county hospital in Tarrant, so I’m sure there’s intermingling with the systems. Yes, scary.
Unions have nothing to do with it. Full time for an RN is 3 twelve hour shifts weekly. as there are 14 twelve hour shifts in a week, you can do the math. In addition if a patient requires heavy nursing care (they are on a ventilator and dialysis, and require rigorous isolation techniques) it would be rare to assign the same RN three shifts in a row - the work load gets spread out to keep it even.
Now the hospitalists. Same thing, there are 14 twelve hour shifts in a week, and docs average about 3 1/2 shifts a week. Then add in an intensivist, same types of shifts and any needed consultants
The number of people is huge already, and that is before you add in lab techs, x-ray techs, janitors, CNA’s, dialysis techs, respiratory techs, clinical pharmacists, social workers and case managers, and the myriad of others required to care for a patient in a modern hospital. Its actually astounding that there are only 70 people exposed.
I don’t really think 70 is enough, do you? Clearly, if the hospital were not so racist, they’d have put hundreds of people on Thomas Duncan’s case. After all, he was a privileged visitor from Africa who deigned to trust them with his health.
Thank you for posting that.
Pham sounds like it might be Asian.
The only safe way to treat those infected is to quarantine them with their own drugs and allow them to treat themselves. That means there is no safe way to treat them.
An isolation suit is contaminated after one contact. Then it has to be decontaminated. I would not be surprised if they were using each others’ suits. I’m sure they were using them over and over.
Pham is Vietnamese.
IT WAS BECAUSE YOU LET THE LIBERIAN WITH EBOLA INTO OUR COUNTRY....
he spread the disease....he knew he was at risk...he knew he was probably spreading his death to many people...even with his 67 IQ he KNEW....
some nurses work 12 hr shifts others work 8 and there is lots of overtime....
there is not going to be continuity....hospital care is 24/7 and it doesn't relate to bankers or teachers hours....
Universal precautions! That’s all that is needed and everyone is safe. You know - gloves, a paper jacket, eye protection maybe and a mask over you nose and mouth and all is good. This is for every possible disease and virus so and any questions or concerns are the result of racism or intolerance. Everything is equal and fine - hey no worries. I worked for years in a lab and hospital in Dallas around some very nasty stuff and any questions and I would get “universal precautions!” bit shoved down my throat from women more concerned with political correctness and inane overly broad and blanket facts and rules taught over and over in indoctrination modules all employees must take multiple times a year. Obviously universal precautions aren’t going to work with Ebola and other nasty virus and bugs while everyone says no problem because we followed the rules. Sorry I’m ranting I’ve just heard a few experts use the line on CNN and I used to get upset with it and the mindset at the hospitals of many - now they are all freaking out for sure. Lot’s of people being exposed have no business
being around them and to give people a 20 minute lesson on how to properly were a gown and gloves and dispose of them and then they are good to go and pretend they’re highly trained hospital staff ready for Ebola is lunacy.
A link to this thread has been posted on the Ebola Surveillance Thread
This allows the hospital to bill more. Sadly they still see dollar signs because the taxpayers will pick up the bill.
What a racist hospital? Only 70 people? It should have been 75. And the family received $500,000 (likely more) of free care for their lying relative they will never have to pay back when it should have been $1,000,000
I understand most of that, but why would the nurse caring for my brother on Tuesday, say, be working in the ICU (with patients) on Wednesday too, but NOT caring for my brother on Wed.? I can understand that occasionally occurring, but this was the rule, not the exception.
No continuity seems like a sure bet for gross inefficiency (we could see that) and increased likelihood for mistakes.
You could do it on shifts with about 25 people. 70 is absurd.
Perhaps the coach ran in substitutes for his A team to give them some experience : (
This is a ‘game of exponential fun’; does 70 include only those working with the patient or the others they contacted as well: friends/family/lunch-break/dinner associates?
BUT, but, protocol was followed...so we’re all safe, right?
“nursing in an acute care hospital is extremely tiring both physically and mentally and also emotionally....its not sitting reading a book at a desk....
some nurses work 12 hr shifts others work 8 and there is lots of overtime....
there is not going to be continuity....hospital care is 24/7 and it doesn’t relate to bankers or teachers hours.... “
Thanks to both of you for posting the reality of working in a high demand ICU in today’s hospitals.
Most of the AH’s whining about the woosie RN’s couldn’t last a half of a shift on one of these units.
A long time ago, my wife, nick named the Sturdy Woman/RN was one of the pioneer ICU RN’s in a premium unit at a top notch hospital. She supposedly worked 8 hour shifts which were really 10 plus hours. After 2-3 shifts in a row, she was wiped out physically and mentally.
When, she used to worked a shift in peds/obg/general, she would come home and be ready as we joked to plow fields, plant crops harvest them, cook a great dinner and go dancing after dinner. That didn’t happen. It took her 12 plus hours to get back semi ready to go on the next shift.
The mental strain, even then was tremendous, and of course with acutely.seriously ill patients, some died sometimes during her shift. That took even a higher toll on her. She lasted two years doing critical ICU nursing.
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