The Dallas hospital where two American nurses contracted Ebola and one Ebola patient died is now apologizing. Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital has issued an apology for mishandling the case of the now deceased Thomas Eric Duncan, who was sent home after he first visited the hospital complaining of a fever and mentioned that he was from Liberia. Since Duncan’s death on Oct. 8th, two nurses that treated him have been diagnosed with Ebola, 26-year-old Nina Pham and 29-year-old Amber Vinson.
In a written testimony to the House Energy and Commerce Committee, the chief clinical officer for Texas Health Services Daniel Varga stated that losing Duncan was devastating to the hospital and expressed regret for not properly diagnosing him initially.
“Unfortunately, in our initial treatment of Mr. Duncan, despite our best intentions and a highly skilled medical team, we made mistakes. We did not correctly diagnose his symptoms as those of Ebola. We are deeply sorry.”
There is now a heightened concern about the virus spreading throughout the United States due to Vinson traveling by air between Cleveland and Dallas while having Ebola symptoms. Before Vinson was officially diagnosed with the virus, she called the CDC and complained that she had a fever but was told that she could still fly. She then flew from Cleveland to Dallas and was later officially diagnosed. Since news hit that she flew while exhibiting symptoms, the 132 passengers that she flew with are being interviewed and a few schools in Dallas and Cleveland have been closed due to Vinson being on board with students, CNN reports. Frontier Airlines also reportedly gave six crew members paid leave for 21 days as a safety precaution.
Vinson is currently being treated in Atlanta at Emory University Hospital while Pham remains in “good” condition at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital.