Sound The Trumpet : Health Care Worker At Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas Tests Positive for Ebola

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“Health Care Worker At Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas Tests Positive for Ebola”
by Arutz Sheva
October 13th, 2014

Louis DeLuca/Staff Photographer

Cleaning Guys spokesman Brad Smith checks out the back alley way at the residence at 5700 block of Marquita, where reportedly a person diagnosed with Ebola lived, photographed in Dallas on Sunday, October 12, 2014. (Louis DeLuca/The Dallas Morning News)

A Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital health care worker in Dallas who had “extensive contact” with the first Ebola patient to die in the United States has contracted the disease.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta confirmed the news Sunday afternoon after an official test.

The infected person detected a fever Friday night and drove herself to the Presbyterian emergency room, where she was placed in isolation 90 minutes later. A blood sample sent to the state health lab in Austin confirmed Saturday night that she had Ebola — the first person to contract the disease in the United States.

The director for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Sunday that the infection in the health care worker, who was not on the organization’s watch list for people who had contact with Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan, resulted from a “breach in protocol.”

"We have spoken with the health care worker," who cannot "identify the specific breach" that allowed the infection to spread, said CDC director Dr. Tom Frieden. The CDC has sent additional staff members to Dallas to “assist with the response,” he said.

Frieden said exposure can result from a “single inadvertent slip.” He cautioned: "Unfortunately it is possible in the coming days we will see additional cases of Ebola" in health care workers.

Texas health commissioner David Lakey said the health care worker had "extensive contact" with Duncan. The nurse, who missed two days of work before going to the emergency room, is believed to have had contact with one person while symptomatic. Ebola, which is spread through direct contact with bodily fluids of a sick person, can only be transmitted from infected people showing symptoms.

"We have been preparing for an event like this,” Lakey said.

Presbyterian chief clinical officer Daniel Varga said the exposure occurred during Duncan’s second visit to the hospital. Duncan, the first person to die of Ebola in the United States, went to the Presbyterian emergency room Sept. 25 and was sent home with antibiotics only to return to the hospital on Sept. 28. He was diagnosed with Ebola and died Oct. 8.

It is not clear how the health care provider contracted Ebola. According to Duncan's patient records released by the family to The Associated Press, this is what happened at Presbyterian:

— On Sept. 28, an ambulance with Duncan arrived at the hospital’s emergency bay shortly after 10 a.m.

— Doctors performed tests on Duncan, who told them he had recently arrived from Africa, and determined he had sinusitis.

— Now in isolation, Duncan was projectile vomiting, having explosive diarrhea and his temperature was 103.1 degrees.

— On Sept. 29, as his condition worsened, Duncan asked the nurse to put him in a diaper.

— On Sept. 30, tests results confirmed Duncan had Ebola. Only then did staff treating Duncan trade their gowns and scrubs for hazmat suits, and the room was cleaned with bleach.

Varga at Presbyterian said the worker was wearing protective gear, including a gown, glove, mask and shield, when she came into contact with Duncan. “This individual was following full CDC precautions,” Varga said

Officials haven’t released the name of the health care worker or her job description. Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins said he has spoken to the health care worker's parents, who have asked for privacy.

"Let's remember that this is a real person who is going through a great ordeal. So is that person's family," Jenkins said.

The second Ebola patient lives in the 5700 block of Marquita Avenue in East Dallas, where the person’s apartment was going to be decontaminated Sunday. While the CDC didn’t consider the person to be at “high risk” of contracting Ebola, the health care worker had been monitoring for signs of the disease, including checking for fever twice daily.

The person's car was decontaminated and the common area of an apartment complex was going to be cleaned by a hazardous-material team Sunday.

A crew of 15 people from the Cleaning Guys was going to decontaminate the person’s apartment Sunday afternoon, said company owner Erick McCallum. "Our main objective is for this to go away and to be eradicated," he said.

Staff writers Melissa Repko, Sherry Jacobson, Claire Cardona, Eva-Marie Ayala and Matthew Haag contributed to this report.

=====

Update at 2:59 p.m.

Brad Smith, Vice President of CG Environmental-Cleaning Guys, a hazardous material company, was hired to clean the apartment unit of the ill health care worker.

He said the hazmat crew will begin cleaning in the next hour or two. They are not sure how long it will take. The crew will include up to 15 people.

He said he's not concerned about the safety of the crew. He heard the health care worker contracted Ebola after "there was something that went wrong in her PPE" or "personal protective equipment."

"I'm not sure how it happened," he said. "But we will not let that happen to our guys."Smith said the company was hoping not to get any more calls about an Ebola case.

"I was speechless. I don't know what my thoughts were," he said. "I just knew we had to react and gear up and do it again."

Smith said the crew plans to clean the exterior today and clean the interior tomorrow. It will be similar to the cleanup of the apartment where Thomas Eric Duncan stayed.

"We won't do anything different," he said. "We think the last time we went out we were successful in cleaning it up. We will continue to so the same thing."

Update at 12:21 p.m.

At the end of Marquita, morning services were underway at Skillman Church of Christ. The congregation first became aware of the deadly disease when medical missionary Dr. Kent Brantly, who many congregants know, contracted the illness.

Then many became close to the son of Thomas Eric Duncan, who died of the disease. Now pastor Joel Sanchez was telling the church that a healthcare worker just a few blocks away has Ebola.

"As much as we are connected to the world, it's easy to see something on the television and think of it as happening over yonder, over there," he said. "But when it hits close to home, it becomes real."

The congregation prayed for the healthcare worker who Sanchez said put another in front of herself because he had a need. They prayed for the family of Duncan. But then Sanchez asked his congregation not to forget the thousands suffering in West Africa, an area with limited medical resources where nearly 4,000 people have died from Ebola.

"We can't forget those people whose only course of action is to pray that they don't get it," Sanchez said.

Looking for His glorious appearing! Titus 2:13