Workers at Bellvue Hospital in New York wear
protective gear during a demonstration of Ebola procedures on Oct. 8. Medical
records indicate that workers at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas
treated Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan without hazardous materials gear for
two days until tests confirmed his diagnosis. (File 2014/The Associated Press)
Health care workers treating Thomas
Eric Duncan in a hospital isolation unit didn’t wear protective
hazardous-material suits for two days until tests confirmed the Liberian man
had Ebola — a delay that potentially exposed perhaps dozens of hospital workers
to the virus, according to medical records.
The 3-day window of Sept. 28-30 is
now being targeted by investigators for the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention as the key time during which health care workers may have been
exposed to the deadly virus by Duncan, who died Oct. 8 from the disease.
Duncan was suspected of having Ebola
when he was admitted to a hospital isolation unit Sept. 28, and he developed
projectile vomiting and explosive diarrhea later that day, according to medical
records his family turned over to The Associated Press.
But workers at Texas Health
Presbyterian Hospital Dallas did not abandon their gowns and scrubs for hazmat
suits until tests came back positive for Ebola about 2 p.m. on Sept. 30,
according to details of the records released by AP.
The misstep – one in a series of
potentially deadly mishandling of Duncan — raises the likelihood that other
health care workers could have been infected. More than 70 workers were exposed
to him before he died, but hospital officials have not indicated how many
treated him in the initial few days.
Hospital officials have likewise not
responded to repeated requests for comment about what types of protective gear
was used the first few days, and why officials felt a need to change the gear
being used on Sept. 30.
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