DALLAS - The medical records of the Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan showed that his temperature spiked to 103 degrees during his initial visit to an emergency room - a fever that was flagged with an exclamation point in the hospital's record-keeping system.
Despite telling a nurse that he had recently been in Africa and displaying other symptoms that could indicate the Ebola virus, Mr. Duncan, the only person to die from the disease in the United States, underwent a battery of tests and was sent home.
Mr. Duncan's family provided his medical records to bberitaa.blogspot.com - more than 1,400 pages in all. They encompass his time in the emergency room and his urgent return to the hospital, and chronicle his steep decline as his organs began to fail.
He carried the deadly virus with him from his home in Liberia, though he showed no symptoms when he left for the United States.
Mr. Duncan landed in Dallas on Sept. 20, and went to the emergency room at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital feeling ill on Sept. 25.
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At that time, Mr. Duncan complained of abdominal pain, dizziness, a headache and decreased urination, the records indicate. He reported severe pain, rating it an eight on a scale of 10. Doctors gave him CT scans to rule out appendicitis, stroke and numerous other serious ailments. Ultimately, he was prescribed antibiotics and told to take Tylenol, then returned to the apartment where he was staying with a Dallas woman and three other people, according to the records.
Despite his fever, a physician's note dated Sept. 26 said Mr. Duncan was 'negative for fever and chills.'
'I have given patient instructions regarding their diagnosis, expectations for the next couple of days, and specific return precautions,' according to the emergency room physician's note. 'The condition of the patient at this time is stable.'
After his condition worsened, someone in the apartment called 911, and paramedics took him back to the hospital on Sept. 28. He was admitted and swiftly put in isolation.
The documents also showed that a nurse recorded early in Mr. Duncan's first hospital visit that he recently came to the United States from Africa, though he reported having no contact with anyone who was sick.
A hospital spokesman, Wendell Watson, did not immediately respond to phone, email and text messages left on Friday. A doctor who evaluated Mr. Duncan did not respond to a message left at his office.
Posted by Unknown on Friday, October 10, 2014 - Rating: 4.5
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