From today's Democracy Now:
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: In a conference call Tuesday, [National Nurses United's] co-president Deborah Burger said nurses at the Dallas hospital described having to use medical tape to secure openings in their flimsy garments, and were worried that their necks and heads were exposed as they cared for a patient with explosive diarrhea and projectile vomiting.
And more safety lapses:
DEBORAH BURGER: When Mr. Thomas Eric Duncan first came into the hospital, he arrived with a temperature that was tested with an elevated temperature but was sent home. On his return visit to the hospital, he was brought in by ambulance under suspicion from amongst his family he had Ebola. Mr. Duncan was left for several hours, not in isolation, in an area where other patients were present. Subsequently, a nurse supervisor arrived and demanded that he be moved to an isolation unit, yet faced resistance from other hospital authorities. Lab specimens from Mr. Duncan were sent through the hospital tube system without being specifically sealed and hand-delivered. The result is that the entire tube system, which all the lab specimens are sent, was potentially contaminated.
There was no advance preparedness on what to do with the patient. There was no protocol. There was no system. The nurses were asked to call the infectious disease department. The infectious disease department did not have clear policies to provide either. Initial nurses who interacted with Mr. Duncan wore generic gowns, used in contact-droplet isolation, front and back, three pairs of gloves with no taping around the wrists, surgical masks with the option of an N95 and face shields. Some supervisors said that even the N95 masks were not necessary.
Nurses from Dallas’ Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital participated in the conference with their identities hidden:
JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Yes. Well, I participated in the conference call that was held by National Nurses United last yesterday—late yesterday with some of the nurses who had been involved in the Dallas hospital where Duncan died. And they were not identified, because the union clearly said that they didn’t want repercussions on them, and they only communicated by email to the union members, but they participated in the phone call. And it was an astounding litany of lapses at the hospital that these nurses claim occurred. And so, I’m glad that we have Karen Higgins here, the co-president of National Nurses United. If you could talk to us about how—the union’s decision to have this press conference and to bring these front-line caregivers to have their voices heard in the national debate and the press coverage of what’s going on with Ebola?
KAREN HIGGINS: Well, I think we needed to bring them forward, and I was glad that they did, and I know it was not easy for them to do it, because we are still, across this country, hearing—and as we heard from Dallas hospital—that, you know, we’re ready, we can take any patient that comes in with Ebola. And I think—you know, then the finger pointing that, oh, the nurse must have broke protocol, and this is why this happened. And the issue is, no, you just did not—you were not and are not prepared to take these patients. There is a higher level of what these patients require for care, as far as protective equipment and as far as training, and we did not do it. And the concern we have is that, you know, Dallas can be repeated in any hospital, and especially, I would say, the vast majority of hospitals in this country, who will continue to say they’re ready and will put us in the same—you know, into the same situation, unless we take this on and make sure that everybody is trained and getting the best equipment we can possibly give them.
As Second Dallas Nurse Diagnosed with Ebola, Are U.S. Hospitals
Failing Healthcare Workers?
TRANSCRIPT
Ebola patients can be cared for safely, if the hospital is prepared to do so:
AMY GOODMAN: Nebraska has treated a few Ebola patients—
KAREN HIGGINS: Right.
AMY GOODMAN: —and have had no healthcare workers come down with illness, and the patients are all getting better.
KAREN HIGGINS: That’s exactly, and the same goes with Atlanta. So we know it can be done. We just need everybody to make a commitment, and we need CDC to make a stand that we are following the same kind of protocol as far as equipment and actually the rigorous training, because it is true—taking it off and putting it on. And what we actually—they recommend is not only having the good equipment, but to have somebody else always be with that person when they’re dressing and when they’re undressing to make sure that they are safely doing it. And that should be another commitment.
Another nationwide conference call conducted by National Nurses United was planned for today at 3 pm ET with 6,400 reportedly signed up to participate. I will update with news from that call as it becomes available.
Nurses are now organizing across the country to protect themselves, their patients, and the public health.