29 Mar ’13
Starting to get close to home...
Man being evaluated for possible Ebola at Boston’s Beth Israel
The man, whom officials have not identified, was taken by ambulance to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center late Sunday afternoon after his presence at a Braintree medical practice briefly shut down that facility earlier in the day.
Dr. Kenneth Sands, senior vice president of the department of health care and quality at Beth Israel Deaconess, said in a news conference Sunday evening that medical staff would assess the man’s symptoms over the next few hours and would test him for Ebola if appropriate.
Getting the results of that test from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would take 24 to 48 hours, Sands said.
“The assessment that this is really and truly an Ebola case has not been completed yet. It will be in the next few hours,” he said.
Beth Israel Deaconess has had a plan in place for dealing with potential Ebola patients for about two months, Sands said, and has assembled a team that is trained to deal with the virus. The patient has been placed in a section of the hospital within a protective barrier, isolated from the rest of the facility, he said.
“We are taking all necessary precautions in collaboration with the City of Boston and the Department of Public Health for the potential that this is suspected Ebola,” Sands said.
On Sunday afternoon, public safety officials briefly closed Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates in Braintree, because of the patient complained of a headache and muscle aches, according to a statement from Benjamin Kruskal, chief of infectious disease for the practice.
“Out of an abundance of caution we immediately notified authorities and the patient was securely removed from the building and put into an ambulance now headed to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center,” Kruskal said.
“The building was closed briefly but has now re-opened,” the statement said. “We are working closely with the Department of Public Health who will determine next steps.”
Earlier Sunday, outside Harvard Vanguard Medical Associates, police cruisers, fire trucks, and ambulances lined Grossman Drive, and the parking lot was cordoned off by yellow police tape.
“Ebola protocol is in place,” said Joe Zanca of Braintree Fire Department. “We don’t know if he actually has Ebola.”
William Cash, a Braintree firefighter, said “no one is leaving.”
Public safety officials clustered near the parking lot entry, where a Braintree EMS ambulance sat with its lights flashing. Five minutes before 4 p.m. the ambulance circled the parking lot and left the facility headed south on Grossman Drive.
Minutes later a middle-aged man wearing a surgical mask and sitting upright on a stretcher was wheeled across Grossman Drive and into another waiting ambulance.
they are saying he does not meet the criteria now
(Reuters) - A man in Massachusetts who was being evaluated at a Boston hospital for a possible Ebola infection does not appear to have the deadly disease, officials at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center said on Sunday night.
The patient, who recently returned from Liberia, had complained of headache and muscle aches, prompting his admittance to an isolation ward with close monitoring, the hospital said.
"This patient does not appear to meet CDC criteria to be considered someone at high risk for Ebola and the likelihood of Ebola Virus Disease is extremely low," the hospital said in a statement emailed to Reuters.
one thing that hasn't been discussed is the costs involved with all this, this could be a financial disaster as well
Ebola Patient Needs $500,000 to Cover Medical Bills
The 33-year-old freelance cameraman who contracted Ebola in Liberia is fighting for his life at the University of Nebraska Medical Center this week. He’s also racking up hundreds of thousands of dollars in medical bills.
According to a GoFundMe campaign launched Monday by his friends, Ashoka Mukpo’s medical bills could run in excess of $500,000.
The cost of the evacuation flight from Liberia to Omaha alone cost $150,000, not including the 40-person medical team that accompanied him on the flight, according to the campaign. Mukpo did have travelers’ insurance, but the policy excludes “catastrophic events or outbreaks,” and won’t pay for the treatment, the GoFundMe campaign says.
Doctors at the Texas hospital who treated Thomas Eric Duncan, the Liberian national who became the first person to die of Ebola on U.S. soil, told Bloomberg that care can cost $1,000 per hour.
“We know that our original goal of $500,000 will likely not cover all of [Mukpo's] expenses, but we are doing all that we can to show our love and support,” friend Stephanie Federico writes on the GoFundMe campaign page.
So far, the campaign has received 206 donations, totaling just over $16,000.
Mukpo is reportedly in stable condition since returning to the states. On Thursday, he received a blood transfusion from Kent Brantley, the American doctor who recovered from the disease after treatment in Atlanta.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/ebola-patient-needs-500-000-041000284.html
Well, damn
A second Texas health care worker who provided care for Ebola victim Thomas Eric Duncan has contracted the virus, according to preliminary test results released early Wednesday. The worker reported a fever Tuesday and was immediately isolated at the Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas, state health officials said in a statement. Confirmatory testing will be carried out by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta. "Health officials have interviewed the latest patient to quickly identify any contacts or potential exposures, and those people will be monitored," the Texas Department of State Health Services said. "The type of monitoring depends on the nature of their interactions and the potential they were exposed to the virus." It is the third case diagnosed in the U.S.
The worker was among those who took care of Duncan, who died a week agoafter he was diagnosed with Ebola earlier this month. The first Texas Health Presbyterian nurse to become infected, Nina Pham, said in a statement Tuesdaythat she was "doing well" and grateful for her care. The CDC described the latest case involving a health care worker as a "serious concern." In a statement, the CDC added it was "not unexpected that there would be additional exposures." On Tuesday, the CDC's director admitted mistakes were made and said a quicker response might have prevented the virus spreading to hospital workers. A union representing nursesa also criticized the hospital, saying that protocols to protect workers were not in place when Duncan was diagnosed. "There was no advance preparedness on what to do with the patient, there was no protocol, there was no system," National Nurses United said in a statement. Ebola is spread through direct contact with bodily fluids of a sick person or exposure to contaminated objects such as needles. People are not contagious before symptoms such as fever develop.
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