AHC Media posted an article on March 20th, 2015 discussing a nurse’s allegations and possible hospital lawsuit that paint a picture quite different than what the hospital has portrayed publicly, the nurse who was the first person to contract Ebola in the United States is suing her employer for thrusting her into danger without training or proper equipment.
A nurse who contracted Ebola after treating a patient with the disease is suing her hospital. She claims the hospital failed to provide adequate training and protective gear, among several other charges.
• The nurse says she still suffers physically and mentally from the experience.
• She alleges that the hospital used her for public relations efforts against her will.
• Staff members allegedly resorted to Googling information on how to protect themselves.
Attorney Rob Fuller was quoted in this AHC Media article noting that if the substantial allegations in the lawsuit prove to be true, they would suggest that Texas Presbyterian Dallas was not just the unlucky hospital that received the first Ebola patient when no other hospital was adequately prepared either.
““It is a PR nightmare,” Fuller says. “The biggest issue facing that hospital system is that it was the only hospital where a secondary infection occurred. Emory, NIH [National Institutes of Health], Nebraska, Bellevue, all successfully cared for their Ebola patients without incurring infections to staff members. That shows that U.S. hospitals could and did handle Ebola successfully.”
The allegations in the lawsuit raise multiple questions about the hospital’s preparations for admitting an infectious disease patient, as well as the hospital’s organizational structure, he says. Fuller wonders if hospital leaders misjudged the facility’s ability to cope with the unusual case.
“Most importantly, why did the administrator not transfer the patient out to another facility?” Fuller asks. “In other words, did the administrator understand their capabilities and have a realistic assessment of what they could and could not do? Virtually every hospital has its limitations. The administrators have to know them and be prepared to insist on moving patients whose care cannot be accommodated well.”
Read the full article: HERE