National Nurses United
This is upsetting but unfortunately doesn't surprise me - since two nurses have become infected, it was obvious that someone somewhere was making mistakes. And now we have an idea just how systematically the system failed in Texas.
No one knew what the protocols were or were able to verify what kind of personal protective equipment should be worn and there was no training.
Lab specimens from Mr. Duncan were sent through the hospital tube system without being specially sealed and hand delivered. The result is that the entire tube system by which all 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 nurses wore a non-impermeable gown front and back, three pairs of gloves, with no taping around wrists, surgical masks, with the option of N-95s, and face shields. Some supervisors said that even the N-95 masks were not necessary.
Were protocols breached? The nurses say there were no protocols.
Texas Health did not take the threat of Ebola seriously, even though Texas oil workers travel to West Africa. "It can't happen here", until it does.
And now I don my Captain Obvious hat. Follow me below the Orange Squiggle of Power for a mild rant.
Epidemics often start among the poor. The poor start out with, on the average, worse health, more crowded living conditions, poorer diet, and so on. Then the epidemic moves to more "respectable" communities.
If you are to the slightest degree concerned about Ebola, you must therefore want the poor to have access to health care. And please note how going to the emergency room failed Thomas Eric Duncan. If he'd been able to go to his own doctor, someone who knew he had family in West Africa, not only might his life have been saved, but a lot of people might not have been exposed.
If you want the poor to have access to health care, you must either support Obamacare, or you must support something else which achieves that same end. There is no longer any way for a sane person to say "Let them go to the ER". We either need single-payer, Medicare for all, or Obamacare; or perhaps the unicorns will fart out the GOP plan any day now, as soon as they get done digesting tort reform.
Ebola makes clear that poor people being able to see the doctor at a price they can afford can benefit everyone in the community.