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Nurse Amber Vinson took care of Thomas Duncan, the Liberian who died of Ebola at a Texas hospital on October 8th. The 29-year-old Nurse inserted catheters, drew blood and dealt with Duncan's body fluids. She was diagnosed with Ebola on Wednesday and moved last night to a special bio-containment unit at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta. Tom Freiden from the CDC acknowledged that the government was not aggressive enough in managing Ebola and containing the virus as it spread from an infected patient to two nurses at the Dallas hospital.
Debra Berger with the Nurses Union, National Nurses United, revealed alarming details about how the Liberian patient with Ebola was cared for at the Texas hospital. Thomas Duncan was left in an open space in the Emergency Room of the hospital for several hours before being transferred to isolation. His specimens were sent through the hospital's tube system, possibly contaminating all lab specimens. Nurses wore generic gowns and then dealt with other patients. Other gowns later given were not much safer.
And it’s not that Texas is alone in its unpreparedness. In Florida, RN Karen Whileberger says hospitals in her state have no Ebola training, no Ebola preparedness. A Nurse Rep who tried to get information and training for herself and other nurses at her hospital was suspended for her actions. In Massachusetts, Nurse Donna Kelly Williams says nurses were not invited to a state Ebola health preparedness forum, even though they are on the front lines.
In NYC, the shop steward at New York Presbyterian Hospital said while safeguards have been put in place on how to deal with an Ebola patient at Bellevue Hospital, where he works there are no safeguards. Yesterday afternoon the hospital said it is reworking its policies.
"The international community has so far failed to adequately address the growing Ebola crisis." Anthony Banbury is with the U.N. Mission for Ebola response. "We either stop Ebola now or face an entirely unprecedented situation for which we don't have a plan."
More than 4,400 people have died from the worst-ever outbreak of the disease, almost all of them in the West African countries of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea. The World Health Organization warns that the region could see up to 10,000 new Ebola cases a week within two months.