Ebola diagnosed in Dallas

Parent Cafe
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<p>If the United passenger does not have Ebola, why would the other passengers need information about what to do if they got symptoms? </p>

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<p>They were released before the diagnosis.</p>

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<p>I think in most large cities anyway most people in the ER are on medicaid and it’s not a secret or at all unusual. It’s also not unusual to get sent home with antibiotics when that’s not the answer to your issue. Everything else about the Dallas situation is highly unusual, though. Everything.</p>

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<p>Regarding airlines, as far as I can see, the only remaining airline that flies to and from Liberia and a country not in Africa is Brussels Airlines with the flight to/from Brussels. And, that flight is not every day. It appears to be only Mondays and Fridays. A news article I ready by a reporter on the flight said there were only about 100 people on her flight, most of them reporters and Western health workers, even though it was an Airbus that would seat about 300.</p>

<p>There may be a flight to Casablanca on another airline. (The flight completion status for those flights is listed as “unknown” probably because it doesn’t interact with any American/European flight control.)</p>

<p>This is not a busy airport we are talking about. It is listed as one of 2 paved runways in Liberia. Saying that no one with a Liberian passport is allowed on that flight unless they have a really good reason would not be difficult.</p>

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Things must have been different 50 years ago. I got my arm caught in a wringer washer. My parents took me to the emergency room. They really felt that I needed an x-ray, but they had no insurance, so the hospital put on a sling and sent us home. </p>

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<p>Well, I must be biased. My Dad was an ER doctor, I have one sister a nurse, and one sister a nephrologist. NONE of them take into account a patients ability to pay, in terms of their treatment. Also none would prescribe something not likely to help (antibiotics for a suspected viral illness.). I know they all are in their chosen professions because they are scientists and they want to fix people. I do feel like MOST health professionals feel the same. </p>

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<p>I have never once in my entire career been told “your patient doesn’t have insurance. Just, you know, kind of look like you are going through the motions, but we’re not going to do anything for him. Wink wink.” </p>

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<p>I know many healthcare workers–MDs, nurses and others. Do not know ANY of them that have done less than their best, no matter what the insurance status of the patient. I’m not even sure that most of the healthcare workers KNOW the insurance status of any of the patients as that is a matter handled by the billing office that is totally separate from the folks that provide care.</p>

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<p>There is, IMNSHO, an extraordinary level of cynicism and lack of empathy being demonstrated on this thread.</p>

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<p>^Consolation–yes.</p>

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<p>I have never known that. Maybe it’s buried in the chart somewhere, I don’t know. Who has time for that?!</p>

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<p>The healthcare providers are SO overworked, they certainly don’t have time to speculate about what the insurance status (or lack thereof) of the patients they have. Many of our HI hospitals don’t even have enough rooms to put patients in from the ER and have them all over the place–in the waiting room, in corridors, wherever they can find a space. It has been a BIG hardship to ALL the hospitals. Ambulances have been taking patients to wherever there is space in an ER rather than the nearest hospital.</p>

<p>I think the overwork and exhausting caseload in ERS has a greater effect than any deliberate under-treatment of any patient. The few times I have been in ERs with loved ones, there were a LOT of patients in ERs but not many being seen–there was triaging–elderly with chest pain and folks with obvious breathing problems were seen prior to others. I didn’t see ANYONE discharged or leaving. It just took a long time for folks to be seen just because there were so many to be seen. Some folks appeared to be VERY familiar with the routine and expecting to just sit and wait.</p>

<p>I would never want to spend any more time near a hospital than absolutely necessary, as there are a LOT of infections that folks can get, including MSRA and other nasty infections by being there, if you’re healthy or ill or injured. </p>

<p>I agree it is a cultural thing–my healthcare provider friends are terribly frustrated when they try to provide education on self-care to patients but they decline and say they rather get their care in the ER. It’s extremely upsetting to them and their hospitals, as the hospitals are penalized for re-admissions and hospitalizations are a very costly way to get medical care. The homeless also do not have healthcare self-management at the top of their list of needs and tend to get much of their healthcare in the ER. It’s very complicated.</p>

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<p>Well, I don’t know if I would call it a cultural thing. It’s a system thing, And, I also have friends and relatives who work in hospitals and witness this every night. Nearly no-one is very sick and no-one is in any particular hurry. But, I don’t think for one second the doctors and nurses are scrimping on care unless you mean doing the basics to get the patient going. That’s all you get in the ER unless you get admitted to the hospital. This guy did on his second visit. That has happened to people I know, so yeah. Of course, they didn’t have a deadly infectious disease.</p>

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<p><a href=“Disparities in trauma care: are fewer diagnostic tests conducted for uninsured patients with pelvic fracture? - PubMed”>Disparities in trauma care: are fewer diagnostic tests conducted for uninsured patients with pelvic fracture? - PubMed;

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<p><a href=“Medicaid and uninsured patients receive less imaging in EDs - PNHP”>http://pnhp.org/blog/2012/01/13/medicaid-and-uninsured-patients-receive-less-imaging-in-eds/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p><a href=“Research Activities, Online Newsletter Archive”>Research Activities, Online Newsletter Archive;

<p>I don’t know who makes these decisions; I doubt that it’s doctors and nurses. But it is a real phenomenon.</p>

595

<p>Interesting article from a medical reporter:
<a href=“Voices: Even germaphobes don't need to fear Ebola”>http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/10/02/ebola-risks-in-perspective/16589979/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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596

<p>I was at Newark airport today in a long line waiting for immigration when 100 or more of the people in front of me were removed from the line and taken back to another area for this Ebola scare, a guy who was sick on an arriving flight from Brussels:</p>

<p><a href=“Sick passenger investigated for Ebola at Newark airport”>http://nypost.com/2014/10/04/sick-passenger-investigated-for-ebola-at-newark-airport/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>Being a reporter who reports observations is NOT the same as being a scientist and reviewing data and medical procedures for consistency. Inconsistency is the hallmark of making it up as you go along and is not the designator of safe, dependable procedures. </p>

<p>The salient fact is other reporters earlier in the thread who were chastised, as being wrong about reporting on this situation, may have the same or more years of reporting experience has this person. </p>

<p>Therefore, for him to tell me he has 14 years of medical reporting means he probably has many years of being wrong too, same as the aforementioned reporters. And, this may be one of those wrong times. </p>

<p>When it comes to ANY deadly disease following a reporter makes no sense o me. I choose to follow the scientist who understands he does not know it all for he is taking the most conservative approach to limit exposure.</p>

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<p>Another straw man argument, as no one that I have read anywhere has said the US is on the verge of an apocalypse.</p>

<p>What precautionary people, myself included, are saying is to take steps to ensure the MINIMUM amount of exposed people in the US.</p>

<p>Wanting the MAXIMUM avoidance of sickness is not the same, as expecting an apocalypse. </p>

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<p>I quit posting on another thread because of this mentality. Among the comments I read:</p>

<p>“I’m just going to stay home for the next month (posted by someone who lives in the Pacific northwest).”</p>

<p>“I fear that this is the beginning of the end.”</p>

<p>“It’s been established that ebola is spread via airborne, but the government doesn’t want us to know that.”</p>

<p>“My sister is a nurse. I asked her it it was crazy for me to cancel my plans to go to the State Fair of Texas in Dallas, ans she said no, I should take the proper precautions.”</p>

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<p>More on the “why did he come here” question. I am very sorry for her. She went from looking forward to marrying the man, to having him in the hospital fighting for his life and her family under quarantine, waiting to see who breaks with this deadly disease next.</p>