Thursday, October 16, 2014

Hazardous Material

Ebola can be controlled with the right precautions.  But there seems to have been a breakdown at the Dallas hospital that treated Thomas Eric Duncan.  Via TPM:

A nurses’ union – which doesn’t represent the Dallas nurses but was enlisted to speak on their behalf – released a statement today detailing a mix of sloppiness, uncertain and evolving practical and lack of proper equipment in the first days of Thomas Eric Duncan’s stay at the hospital. But the more striking news – found in medical records obtained by the AP – is that there was apparently a critical two and one half days after Duncan was admitted to the hospital with a suspected case of Ebola but before his definitive diagnosis when hospital workers continued to operate without hazardous materials protective gear.

I’m not a doctor or a healthcare worker, but I think even a layman knows that when you’re running the risk of being exposed to an infectious disease, be it a head cold or Ebola, you wear protective gear.  (My dentist wears a mask and gloves when he’s flossing my teeth.)  It’s not like the hospital didn’t know that there was an epidemic of Ebola going on somewhere in the world.

2 barks and woofs on “Hazardous Material

  1. My coworkers and I were exposed to TB before the docs had a definite diagnosis of the patient. Slip-ups happen, even at the Mayo Clinic. Remember, too, Ebola is new to the US.

  2. Dentists began wearing protective gloves and covering the lamp that shines into your mouth when HIV was going around to who knows where. Wouldn’t you think hospitals would be on the alert for that if for nothing else? And the poor woman who showed symptoms as she boarded the plane had tried to get through to the CDC for advice, but had no luck getting a response.

    I would think Congress might bend enough to confirm a Surgeon General. He’s been on the waiting list for years.

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