A
nurse who contracted Ebola two years ago while caring for the first person to
be diagnosed in the U.S, Thomas Eric Duncan at Texas Health Presbyterian
Hospital Dallas. Duncan, who contracted Ebola in his native Liberia with the
deadly disease became ill during a trip to the U.S., died. Pham, at the time an
intensive care unit nurse, and another Dallas nurse who contracted Ebola
survived, she settled a lawsuit Monday against the parent company of the Dallas
hospital where she worked.
Attorneys for Nina Pham announced the settlement with
Texas Health Resources. They and the company said in a joint statement that
terms will not be disclosed.
The statement said Pham and the company "wish the
best for each other going forward."
In her lawsuit against the hospital's parent company, Pham
said that the "sum total" of information she was given to protect
herself after being told she would be treating a patient suspected of having
Ebola was "what her manager 'Googled' and printed out from the
Internet." She said that the day after she got that information, the
patient tested positive for the disease.
The lawsuit called Pham "a casualty of a hospital system's
failure to prepare for a known and impending medical crisis."
It described a chaotic situation at the hospital, in which
nurses scrambled to decide what kind of personal protective equipment to wear
"without any formal guidance or training" from their supervisors.
Clear drop cloths were taped to the ceiling and walls of
the hallway to create a makeshift containment facility, nurses had to dispose
of hazardous waste, which they weren't trained to do, and hazardous material
placed in the room next to Duncan's was allowed to pile up, the lawsuit
alleged.
On the first day Pham treated Duncan, when Ebola was
suspected but not yet diagnosed, she wore a regular isolation gown, double
gloves, a surgical mask with a plastic shield and double booties. The lawsuit
said her hair and neck were exposed and that she wasn't given a change of
clothes to wear home, so she went home in the scrubs she wore while treating
Duncan.
After his diagnosis, nurses put on hazmat suits with
double gloves and added "chemo gloves" and taped them to the suit.
They also added a personal respirator they covered with a gown. These
decisions, the lawsuit said, were made without any formal guidance or training
by supervisors.
The lawsuit said that after Duncan died, Pham was told
that what she had worn was safe and that she had no risk of contracting Ebola. Confident
in what hospital officials had told her, she spent time with friends and
family. The lawsuit said that she began feeling ill two days after Duncan died.
The next day, she drove herself to the hospital and was diagnosed with Ebola.
In a response to the lawsuit, the hospital operator denied
allegations of poor training and improper preparation.
An independent review released in September 2015 found the
hospital wasn't adequately prepared for a patient who had Ebola and stumbled
because of communication failures. The report led by a former chief executive
of the Mayo Clinic found communications at the hospital were inconsistent, such
as when Duncan's travel history gathered by a nurse wasn't verbally
communicated to a doctor.
The report also faulted the U.S. Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention, which it said failed to prepare the hospital in the use
of personal protective equipment, waste management and "other
challenges."
Pham eventually was transferred to the National Institutes
of Health in Maryland for treatment and recovered.
The lawsuit said, though, that she worried about her
long-term health and doubted she'd ever return to being a critical care nurse
again because of the stress and anxiety of the trauma she experienced and the
"fear and stigma" that follow her.
After her recovery, Pham continued to be a hospital
employee but didn't return to work. Her employment status following the
settlement of the lawsuit was unclear. The two parties said in their statement
announcing the settlement that they would not be making additional statements.
When contacted, they declined to give further information, including about
Pham's employment status.
Source: AFP
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