OCTOBER
Joseph Glasby
Period 4/6
First patient diagnosed with Ebola in U.S. dies in Dallas hospital
Thomas Eric Duncan, 42 years of age, left Liberia on September 19th and arrived in Dallas to visit his fiancee on September 20th. Duncan visited the hospital with a fever, abdominal pain and a headache on September 25th. While in the hospital Duncan notified them that he had been in Africa. The result, was Duncan being sent home with antibiotics treating bacterial infections. Three days later Duncan’s conditions worsened. He returned by the hospital by ambulance and was isolated in a room where he would have no further contact with other patients. Duncan, the first patient diagnosed with Ebola in the United States, died in that hospital in Dallas.
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I feel that, the hospital Duncan attended on September 25th should have taken this case more seriously. I highly disagree with sending Duncan home with simple antibiotics. This is ridiculous and unprofessional for any doctor. Everyone knows the symptoms of Ebola, doctor or not, because the disease is such a serious topic. These symptoms Duncan possesed should have been taken into affect and Duncan should have been tested and treated for Ebola immediately. I feel that the doctors in that hospital are lazy and put not only the United States at risk, but also the rest of the world at risk. Duncan had a full five days to come in contact with people before being isolated. That is improper and shows traits of an amatur. This article disgusts me and gets me angry. Not only did the doctors put the world at risk of contagion, but they also created an inconvenience to all people who came in contact with Duncan, because now all of those people have to be isolated for a period of 21 days. This takes 21 days away from their family, and work. These people can not provide for their family now. If a kid came into contact with Duncan, that’s three weeks of school missed. I am ashamed.
1. Do you agree or disagree with my analysis of the issue?
2. What is the best way to handle the situation created?
3. What would you have done if you were a doctor treating Duncan on September 25th?
https://www.newsela.com/articles/duncan-death/id/5533/
I feel like that the doctors at the hospital made a mistake in send Duncan home with antibiotics. I feel this way because over those three days he probably came in contact with lots of people and in moments leading up to his doctor's visit he probably met more people. So by allowing him to go home they have now given Ebola an opportunity to spread.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading the article and hearing about it on the news, I completely agree that allowing the man to return to the public with symptoms of Ebola is extremely unprofessional and unsafe for the victim and anyone who comes in contact with him. I believe doctors should have taken a closer look at the mans symptoms, if these precautions were taken 42 year old Thomas Duncan might still be alive today.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your analysis on this issue completely. The doctors in the Dallas hospital should have taken into consideration the possibility of Duncan having Ebola, especially with the fact that he was in Africa a few days before. With his symptoms and everything going on with the disease, the doctors should have been aware of Duncan having Ebola.
ReplyDeleteJoseph,
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with you about your analysis. I feel the same way that the doctors should've looked more closely at Duncan's case and they were the reason he died. I think that if the Doctors had taken him more seriously, they could've saved his life. I think the best way the doctors could've handled it was to put him into isolation in the first place, instead of sending him home. If Duncan was my patient, I would've taken him into intensive care before even thinking of sending him home.
I believe that the Dallas medical care treated this situation unbelievably poorly. Ebola is an extremely serious issue, and this patient should have been given a lot more care considering every doctor must know how deadly Ebola is and how many people have been killed as a result of the disease. Sending this person home with Ebola was the worst thing they could have done besides placing him in a stadium of 100,000 people, which could have happened if he attended a Dallas Cowboys game. The doctors are very lucky that Ebola isn't spreading like wildfire right now.
ReplyDeleteI actually was not aware of the symptoms of Ebola, but I am not a doctor and it is their job to know. I hope all doctors study the symptoms and make plans of what to do if they come in contact with someone infected with ebola
ReplyDeleteI think that the hospital did everything in their power to get Duncan better without causing the disease to spread throughout the hospital. The doctor was obviously unaware that his patient had Ebola or he would've done more from the beginning. Yes the doctor should have gone to a higher extent than just sending him home with simple antibiotics, but once he found out he did do everything that he was capable of to try and treat him.
ReplyDeleteJoseph, I completely agree with you. This was totally immature to let Duncan go home with simple antibiotics. Ebola or not, he could still get other people sick! And since it is Ebola, that is just crazy. I am 99.9% sure that every single doctor in America knows the symptoms of Ebola, and to let that poor guy go home with no questions asked is crazy! They should have done a better job with that.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your analysis of the issue. I think that it is ridiculous that the doctors sent him home with such simple antibiotics and we not even suspicious of him having ebola. Ebola is such a well known disease and it surprises me that the doctors sent him home without testing for ebola or at least being concerned that he has the disease since he had just arrived from Africa. And now that he was sent out in the open with Ebola, there is a higher chance of others catching the disease.
ReplyDeleteAlthough it was foolish for the doctors to send him home could you imagine what it would be like if every patient coming into a hospital with fever like symptoms was being isolated for the fear of Ebola? That would be awful but what should've tipped the doctors off was when he told them he came from Africa, I believe that EVERYONE coming home from west Africa feeling sick should be tested for the virus!
ReplyDeleteI agree with what the analysis said, that the doctors should not have let him go home. Although most people do know the symptoms of Ebola, some people do not. But as doctors, I think it would be their job to know about one of the most deathly diseases in the world that is spreading. Even if they thought he didn't, they should have checked anyway. I think the best way that they could have treated this was to put the patient in an isolated room, instead of sending him home. If he had gone out, there may have been an major spread of Ebola, and the doctors at that hospital were to be for blame.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your analysis. The doctor that sent him home was either untrained or a flat out idiot. Anyone with a sickness and recently came from West Africa should hint that that person has Ebola. We are all lucky that he was not exposed to more people in the time that he was let out of the hospital.
ReplyDeleteI agree with with your analysis of the issue. I think that it's dumb how they just sent Duncan home. If they knew he was in Africa and that the Ebola virus had been going around, they should have tested him more because it's better to be safe than sorry. To just give him antibiotics when he might have a serious contagious disease is just ridiculous. Now other people have a chance of getting Ebola since he had been sent home for 5 days after going in the hospital. Doctors need to pay a lot more attention to the patient and how they could help the situation, not worsen it.
ReplyDeleteI Agree with your analysis. I don't get how the doctors barley even treated him at first and just sent him home? They should of saw what was exactly wrong right away and been more aware that what Duncan had was more extreme than just a flue. By allowing Duncan to have gone home, there is a way bigger chance for Ebola to spread.
ReplyDelete1. I agree with you joe. I dont think it was right t all for the docotors to send him home. Also af ter he told them he just got back from Africa! Everyone knows whats going on in Africa and we dont want to spread this diese world wide!
ReplyDelete2. I think for them to isolate the man at a hospital in AFRICA! he got the diese there so we dont want it to spread more in america.
3. I would keep him at the hospital still isolated because he heard that he came from africa and had EBOLA symboms
1. I agree with you, in that, the doctors should've ran more tests on him than they did before they sent him home. It is not at all appropriate that they did not help the man more than giving him simple antibiotics to treat him. On the other hand, this was the first case in the United States of Ebola. Therefore, we were not truly expecting it to show up in someone at that time. What should've tipped the doctor off is that he went to Africa and we were well aware of the Ebola virus and its symptoms. Overall, the doctor should have been more thorough in his "investigation", but we can not blame him. At the end we put him in isolation as was needed to keep everyone else safe.
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