We all know or maybe should know by now that Texas did not extend Medicaid and would that have made a
different in his treatment? That’s a big question and his nephew wrote a letter explaining such. As he stated certain drugs were not available and his test took days longer than someone else who had their results in 24 hours. Also is this why he was initially sent away? There’s a lot of questions here to be answered, that’s for sure.
We know we have a broken system for sure and will it take Ebola to wake folks up? His nephew said he was also denied experimental drugs. This makes a case perhaps of how care is delivered in the US to the poor and those without insurance.
Sadly It’s Ebola That’s Bringing the US Kicking and Screaming, To Our Knees–We Must Deal With the Real World Solutions, Not Virtual World Values This Time as They Won’t Work…
Now the next part is awful, the family had to hear of his death from the press? BD
Thomas Eric Duncan could have been saved. Finally, what is most difficult for us — Thomas Eric’s mother, children and those closest to him — to accept is the fact that our loved one could have been saved. From his botched release from the emergency room to his delayed testing and delayed treatment and the denial of experimental drugs that have been available to every other case of Ebola treated in the U.S., the hospital invited death every step of the way.
When my uncle was first admitted, the hospital told us that an Ebola test would take three to seven days. Miraculously, the deputy who was feared to have Ebola just last week was tested and had results within 24 hours.
The fact is, nine days passed between my uncle’s first ER visit and the day the hospital asked our consent to give him an experimental drug — but despite the hospital’s request they were never able to access these drugs for my uncle. (Editor’s note: Hospital officials have said they started giving Duncan the drug Brincidofovir on October 4.) He died alone. His only medication was a saline drip.
http://crooksandliars.com/2014/10/ebola-victims-nephew-speaks-thomas-eric
Thomas Duncan could not necessarily have been saved. It is hubris and arrogance to presume that he could, even with whatever treatments (which are not really "treatments" at all, just best efforts to treat symptoms) were available. You didn't say that Miz Duck, I realize.
ReplyDeleteI am deeply suspicious of our readiness for adoption of Electronic health/med records. That failed at Texas Presbyterian Hospital. Duncan told nurses on his first visit that he was a recent arrival from West Africa. You know the rest. It was in no one's best interest for Duncan to remain un-quarantined, with or without results of his confirmed diagnosis.
In America if you have no insurance for hospitals to make profit with you get no healthcare, it wasn't that he was black, it was that he had no insurance. In America healthcare is not about healthcare, it is about $$$$$$$.
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