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October 2nd, 2014
09:53 PM ET
AC360 Exclusive: Partner of Dallas Ebola patient speaks from quarantine
When Ebola patient Thomas Duncan traveled to Dallas, he stayed with his partner Louise. She asked us not to use her last name. But the couple does have a child together. Louise accompanied Mr. Duncan to the hospital when he first started experiencing symptoms of Ebola.. She is currently in quarantine, not at a hospital, but in her northeast Dallas apartment where Mr. Duncan visited. So far, the CDC has not removed the blankets and towels that he used.
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I'm so upset that the first thing hospital officials did after they realized their error in misdiagnosing and not admitting Duncan was have Louise sign legal documents. Could she even read and understand them? Is her first language English? Is she skilled in legal terminology? Before they worried about her contaminated apartment, or her kids, or getting food to her, they worried about being sued. What does that say about how this hospital is managed? That's despicable.
Like you, I wish this family well. I'm glad Louise, her son and 2 nephews have a calmer safer place to live during these next weeks. They were abandoned by the CDC for days. No food was brought to them. No proper plastic bags for disposing of contaminated sheets/ towels were provided them. Clearly Louise's daughter (who cared for Duncan his worst day, and who called the ambulance) and that daughter's two children should be quarantined also. And the brother who took care of Duncan the Saturday before his 2nd admission to hospital also should be quarantined. That brings the quarantine count up to 8 people. Then adding in the 3 ambulance employees who transported Duncan to hospital means 11 people are high risk. Except perhaps one ambulance employee was a driver who did not have body contact, so that brings it down to 10 high risk people. And 10 is exactly the number the CDC has stated as high risk around this Dallas ebola case. Doctors and nurses use gloves/ universal precautions with all patients, so they are not at high risk. The waiting room patients are not high risk because Duncan did not have diarrhea nor sweating the first Friday he went into the ER during that 3-4 hour visit. All ER rooms are sterilized between patients. The saving action in this story is that Louise's daughter called an ambulance rather than taking Duncan to the ER herself for that 2nd trip to the hospital. That decision is what may make this Dallas case containable. We'll see. But like you my mind wonders around the exposure possibilities. I'm worried about the sewer workers who might have contact with Duncan's feces that when down the drain that first Saturday and Sunday in Louise's apartment. Because in ebola ready hospitals, they collect the feces and urine of ebola patients and then dispose of that body waste by special procedures.
First off I wish them all well . I just am very concerned that he was at the hospital most likely sitting in the waiting room with countless others for hours , if they were at the hospital for almost 4 hrs I would assume he was not taken right in to a room. Have they sterilized the waiting room ? Did someone else sit in the seat that he had been in , did he use the public rest rooms . After the Drs and nurses checked him they went on to other patients , Im sorry I think we are looking at much more than 100 people exposed to this . Why are we letting people from that area fly here without an isolation period. DFW is a very populated area this concerns me as I have friends and family in that area .