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Texas Health Care Worker - Ms. Pham - Tests Positive for Ebola: Hospital - now virus free

Re: Texas Health Care Worker Tests Positive for Ebola: Hospital

Re: Texas Health Care Worker Tests Positive for Ebola: Hospital

I assume that dialysis machine is now a 'dedicated use' machine for those with ebola? I don't know much about dialysis, but it would seem best not to put that machine back into circulation? Not sure about how ventilators are handled in these situations. I assume this stuff stays on the unit?
 
Re: Texas Health Care Worker Tests Positive for Ebola: Hospital

Re: Texas Health Care Worker Tests Positive for Ebola: Hospital

AnnaLisa said:
I assume that dialysis machine is now a 'dedicated use' machine for those with ebola? I don't know much about dialysis, but it would seem best not to put that machine back into circulation? Not sure about how ventilators are handled in these situations. I assume this stuff stays on the unit?
Click to expand...

Ventilators and dialysis machines are routinely used for people with infectious diseases, decontaminated and put back into use, as the parts that come into contact with the patient or his body fluids are disposable. I don't know if they would have done that in this case, probably not, considering the outside of the machine is contaminated. They probably are wondering right now what they should do with the equipment when this is all over.

But the question is a very good one in terms of the wise utilization of resources. Those machines can cost several hundreds of thousands of dollars. Should they be used at all in this scenario? Is organ system failure that far advanced in Ebola survivable? Does using advance life support increase the risk of transmission by prolonging the life of a very highly infectious person?(Keep in mind, people are most infectious at the moment of death and shortly thereafter. Using these machines may increase the viral load to levels that have never previously existed, as the patients would have died). All questions that I'm sure we will eventually find the answers to, with time. Unfortunately.
 
Re: Texas Health Care Worker Tests Positive for Ebola: Hospital

Re: Texas Health Care Worker Tests Positive for Ebola: Hospital

Dani said:
Ventilators and dialysis machines are routinely used for people with infectious diseases, decontaminated and put back into use, as the parts that come into contact with the patient or his body fluids are disposable. I don't know if they would have done that in this case, probably not, considering the outside of the machine is contaminated. They probably are wondering right now what they should do with the equipment when this is all over.

But the question is a very good one in terms of the wise utilization of resources. Those machines can cost several hundreds of thousands of dollars. Should they be used at all in this scenario? Is organ system failure that far advanced in Ebola survivable? Does using advance life support increase the risk of transmission by prolonging the life of a very highly infectious person?(Keep in mind, people are most infectious at the moment of death and shortly thereafter. Using these machines may increase the viral load to levels that have never previously existed, as the patients would have died). All questions that I'm sure we will eventually find the answers to, with time. Unfortunately.
Click to expand...

Prolonging the individual life seems to be dependent on supporting them even through potential organ failure -- I'll leave the ethics of what that means in terms of contagion alone, I suspect that equipment can be sufficiently sterilized and can't possibly answer that scale of ethic dilemma.

Ebola shouldn't be that hard to sterilize, though. But anybody who has even been present for dialysis knows that there is sometimes, you know, some blood around, realistically -- it is occasionally really not tidy.

Assuming here that the patient would be in one of their more contagious periods, that blood would probably require extra care, and extra care afterwards with all PPE.

All of that said, it's noteworthy, probably, that in past outbreaks, this sort of level of intervention probably hasn't been done, mostly for lack of resources. So there's undoubtedly a lot to learn there. Will it wind up being worth it? We probably don't know yet. The Spanish nurse sounds like she went through some level of organ failure, too, though I don't know whether dialysis or intubation was any part of her treatment. These procedures would increase the risk to healthcare workers, for sure, so then part of the question is probably whether they also increase the chances for the patient to survive, and we almost certainly just don't have any data for that yet.
 
Re: Texas Health Care Worker Tests Positive for Ebola: Hospital

Re: Texas Health Care Worker Tests Positive for Ebola: Hospital

Presbyterian Hospital Dallas to no longer divert ambulances from the facility amid Ebola threat - @texashealth via breakingnews.com
 
Re: Texas Health Care Worker Tests Positive for Ebola: Hospital

Re: Texas Health Care Worker Tests Positive for Ebola: Hospital

Family identifies Ebola patient

Marjorie Owens, WFAA 12:12 p.m. CDT October 13, 2014

DALLAS ? A Dallas nurse diagnosed with the Ebola virus over the weekend is a former Texas Christian University student identified by a family member as 26-year-old Nina Pham.

The family reached out to WFAA Monday morning and shared an image of the nurse who grew up in Fort Worth.

A health care worker at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas, Pham became infected while treating Thomas Eric Duncan, who died from the virus days before the nurse's diagnosis.

Pham graduated from TCU's nursing program in 2010 and is the first person to contract the disease while in the Unites States.
...
http://www.wfaa.com/story/news/loca...-tcu-christian-student-dallas-nurse/17192239/
 
Re: Texas Health Care Worker Tests Positive for Ebola: Hospital

Re: Texas Health Care Worker Tests Positive for Ebola: Hospital

Ebola Update, Oct. 13, 3:17 p.m. CDT
10/13/2014

Quote from CDC briefing 10-13-2014

CDC Director Dr. Thomas Frieden:

I want to clarify something I said yesterday. I spoke about a "breach in protocol" and that's what we speak about in public health when we're talking about what needs to happen and our focus is to say, would this protocol have prevented the infection? And we believe it would have.

But, some interpreted that as finding fault with the hospital or the health care worker. And, I'm sorry if that was the impression given. That was certainly not my intention. People on the front lines are really protecting all of us. People on the front lines are fighting Ebola.

The enemy here is a virus. Ebola. It's not a person. It's not a country. It's not a place. It's not a hospital. It's a virus. It's a virus that's tough to fight. But together, I'm confident that we will stop it. What we need to do is all take responsibility for improving the safety of those on the front lines.

I feel awful that a health care worker became infected in the care of an Ebola patient. She was there trying to help the first patient survive and now she has become infected. All of us have to work together to do whatever is possible to reduce the risk that any other health care worker becomes infected.
...
http://texashealth.org/news-alert.cfm?id=1629&action=detail&ref=1887
 
Re: Texas Health Care Worker Tests Positive for Ebola: Hospital

Re: Texas Health Care Worker Tests Positive for Ebola: Hospital

About 70 Cared For Mr. Duncan:

DALLAS (AP) -- 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 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....

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/storie...ME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-10-13-18-45-19
 
Re: Texas Health Care Worker Tests Positive for Ebola: Hospital

Re: Texas Health Care Worker Tests Positive for Ebola: Hospital

hawkeye said:
About 70 Cared For Mr. Duncan:

DALLAS (AP) -- 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 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.
Click to expand...
Mr. Duncan got the usual full-court press, spare-no-expense American critical care unit treatment. That may turn out to have been the wrong thing to do, but I'm not sure, with this being the first case ever diagnosed here, that there was any alternative to that- no living American civilian health care worker has ever had to choose between their own life and the life of their patient. We may just be beginning to discover all the unique and inventive ways of spreading Ebola in a modern, urban health care setting.

It's important to note that even in MSF or other NGO facilities, most patient do not receive more than general nursing care, oral antibiotics and oral rehydration. Even IV's are uncommon. The primary purpose of such facilities is to isolate the patient and stop the spread of disease. Yet the occasional HCW still gets infected even in a well-run NGO facility with experienced personnel and minimal contact with patients.
 
Re: Texas Health Care Worker Tests Positive for Ebola: Hospital

Re: Texas Health Care Worker Tests Positive for Ebola: Hospital

Reports: Ebola patient gets blood transfusion

Jim Douglas and Marjorie Owens, WFAA 6:58 p.m. CDT October 13, 2014

DALLAS ? A Dallas nurse diagnosed with the Ebola virus over the weekend has reportedly received a blood transfusion from Ebola survivor Dr. Kent Brantly.
...
Father Jim Khoi, who is Pham's pastor, told News 8 that she has now received a blood transfusion from a "good" and "devoted" man who survived Ebola.

Sources close to Brantly told ABC News that he made the blood donation on Sunday after being asked by Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, where Pham worked. Brantly was working with Ebola patients in Liberia when he fell ill in July. The Fort Worth physician was airlifted to an Atlanta hospital, where he recovered.

Khoi said Pham is in good spirits, using Skype to communicate with her mom, and asking for prayers.
...
http://www.wfaa.com/story/news/health/2014/10/13/ebola-tcu-christian-student-dallas-nurse/17192239/
 
Re: Texas Health Care Worker Tests Positive for Ebola: Hospital

Re: Texas Health Care Worker Tests Positive for Ebola: Hospital

Dr. Brantly also gave two transfusions to Dr. Sacra, and one so far to Mr. Mupko. Since it's plasma, he can donate two times a week.
His blood type wasn't compatible with Mr. Duncan's. Brantly himself was treated with plasma from a teenage Ebola survivor while he was still in Africa.
 
Re: UNCONFIRMED: Texas Nurse's boyfriend admitted with ebola-like symptoms

Re: UNCONFIRMED: Texas Nurse's boyfriend admitted with ebola-like symptoms

I read the article. It appears that he is the one contact previously reported as isolated with her.

Whether or not he is symptomatic is not clear. The articles, including the one above, use the words isolation and quarantine interchangeably, when they are not.

You isolate sick people to keep them from spreading disease. You quarantine healthy people who were exposed to sick people in case they might become sick. Presumably, if a quarantined person becomes sick, he will then be isolated.

This report has passed through multiple sources that may not understand this distinction.
 
Re: UNCONFIRMED: Texas Nurse's boyfriend admitted with ebola-like symptoms

Re: UNCONFIRMED: Texas Nurse's boyfriend admitted with ebola-like symptoms

This was just posted on the website of the Dallas Morning News.

http://www.dallasnews.com/news/metr...rits-gets-transfusion-from-ebola-survivor.ece

[...]
The corporate communications office at Alcon issued a release Monday saying that an Alcon associate had gone to Presbyterian on Sunday and was being monitored for signs and symptoms of Ebola. The release said the associate had been in contact with Pham. The associate hasn?t shown any symptoms of the disease, the release stated.
[...]

It is not clear when Alcon issued their statement, but a miscommunication at Gotnews is certainly possible. On the other hand, Gotnews appears to have sources close to the confirmed patient (they were one of the first news outlets to report her name). I would lean towards it turning out to be false, but worth keeping an eye on nonetheless.
 
Re: Texas Health Care Worker Tests Positive for Ebola: Hospital

Re: Texas Health Care Worker Tests Positive for Ebola: Hospital

http://cityhallblog.dallasnews.com/2014/10/city-officials-are-safely-removing-nina-phams-dog-and-taking-it-to-undisclosed-location-for-monitoring.html/
Update: Ebola patient Nina Pham?s dog Bentley is ?safe with city,? taken to undisclosed location for monitoring
By Robert Wilonsky
3:54 pm on October 13, 2014 | Permalink
Update: Bentley had been moved, according to the city.

?Taking him to a safe place,? says city spokesperson Sana Syed via Twitter. ?Will share pics once we?ve shown the owner he?s okay. ? He?s adorable. Clearly a little puzzled by what?s going on. But he?s in good hands now and will be taken care of. Will update soon.?

...

But Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins has insisted he will do what he can to save the dog: ?When I met with her parents, they said, ?This dog is important to her, judge. Don?t let anything happen to the dog,?? Jenkins told WFAA. ?If that dog has to be The Boy in the Plastic Bubble, we?re going to take good care of that dog.?..
Click to expand...

Cavaliers are small dogs known to have sweet dispositions.
 
Re: Texas Health Care Worker Tests Positive for Ebola: Hospital

Re: Texas Health Care Worker Tests Positive for Ebola: Hospital

http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2014/10/14/alcon-worker-isolated-for-ebola-monitoring/

Alcon Worker Isolated For Ebola Monitoring

[...]
That person is now known to be an employee at the Fort Worth company Alcon. The company sent a message to all staff members, letting them know that one of their own was in isolation at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas.

According to the emailed note, the Alcon employee was admitted to the hospital on Sunday and is being monitored for Ebola symptoms. However, the man has not shown any signs of being sick.
[...]

---
Not that I don't believe he isn't showing symptoms, but I wonder why he was admitted to the hospital when this was not done for previous contacts.
 
Re: Texas Health Care Worker Tests Positive for Ebola: Hospital

Re: Texas Health Care Worker Tests Positive for Ebola: Hospital

Link to the Alcon letter.

I certainly hope he was her boyfriend and not just a drug rep doing a full-court press.
 
Re: Texas Health Care Worker Tests Positive for Ebola: Hospital

Re: Texas Health Care Worker Tests Positive for Ebola: Hospital

Ebola Update, Oct. 14, 11:35 a.m. CDT
10/14/2014

Quotes Issued at the Request of Nina Pham

Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas is issuing the following quotes at the request of Nina Pham.

Nina Pham: ?I?m doing well and want to thank everyone for their kind wishes and prayers. I am blessed by the support of family and friends and am blessed to be cared for by the best team of doctors and nurses in the world here at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas.?

Additionally, Texas Health Resources CEO Barclay Berdan adds: ?The hearts and prayers of everyone at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas are with Nina Pham, and we are working tirelessly to help her in this courageous fight.

The doctors and nurses involved with her treatment remain hopeful, and we ask for the prayers of the entire country.?
...
http://texashealth.org/news-alert.cfm?id=1629&action=detail&ref=1890
 
Re: Texas Health Care Worker Tests Positive for Ebola: Hospital

Re: Texas Health Care Worker Tests Positive for Ebola: Hospital

http://dfw.cbslocal.com/2014/10/14/alcon-worker-isolated-for-ebola-monitoring/

Alcon Worker Isolated For Ebola Monitoring
October 14, 2014 7:08 AM

Quote:

Pham first noticed that she had some of the symptoms on Friday, and her diagnosis was confirmed on Sunday.
eased.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed on Sunday morning that one other person was in close contact with the nurse after her symptoms began to show.
That person is now known to be an employee at the Fort Worth company Alcon. The company sent a message to all staff members, letting them know that one of their own was in isolation at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas.
According to the emailed note, the Alcon employee was admitted to the hospital on Sunday and is being monitored for Ebola symptoms. However, the man has not shown any signs of being sick.

Much more info/details in the link +video
 
Re: Texas Health Care Worker Tests Positive for Ebola: Hospital

Re: Texas Health Care Worker Tests Positive for Ebola: Hospital

Nina Pham to be transferred to NIH in Bethesda, MD

The first nurse to become infected with the Ebola virus in the United States will be transferred from Dallas to NIH in Bethesda, Maryland, a federal government official with direct knowledge of the plans told NBC News.
Nina Pham was upgraded to good condition Tuesday and remained good Wednesday, Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas said. She will be transported from Dallas to NIH's isolation unit in Maryland.
Click to expand...

http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/l...279432452.html?_osource=SocialFlowTwt_DCBrand
 
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