Dallas hospital defends handling of Ebola victim

The Dallas hospital where the country’s first Ebola patient died this week is defending its handling of the case.

Officials from Texas Presbyterian Hospital said in a statement Thursday that the patient, Thomas Eric Duncan, a Liberian man, was treated “with the most appropriate and available medical interventions.”

{mosads}“We’d like to correct some misconceptions that have been reported about Mr. Duncan’s first visit. Our care team provided Mr. Duncan with the same high level of attention and care that would be given any patient, regardless of nationality or ability to pay for care,” hospital spokesman Wendell Watson wrote.

The Dallas hospital had faced criticism after it initially sent Duncan home with the diagnosis of a low-grade fever. He was brought back three days later in an ambulance. Duncan was pronounced dead Wednesday.

The hospital’s statement comes after some of Duncan’s family members raised concerns that he was not receiving the same experimental drugs that have helped infected Americans.

“We feel he didn’t get the medicine and treatment for the disease because he’s African and they don’t consider him as important as the other three [Ebola patients],” Josephus Weeks, Duncan’s nephew, said at a press conference Tuesday.

Democratic lawmakers also questioned the hospital’s response in a letter to House Energy and Commerce Committee leadership last week.

Duncan was first given an experimental drug called brincidofovir on Saturday, nearly a week after he was admitted. Other patients treated in the U.S. were immediately given experimental treatments, prompting the claims of bias from some members of Duncan’s family.

The hospital said Duncan’s doctors consulted with national experts as well as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration before administering the drug.

“The investigative drug was administered as soon as his physicians determined that his condition warranted it, and as soon as it could be obtained,” the statement reads.

Duncan was the first Ebola patient to ever receive this drug, which was approved by the FDA for emergency use on Monday.

The hospital added that Duncan did not receive the same type of blood transfusion as two of the Ebola-infected Americans because “his blood type was not compatible.” The NBC cameraman who is infected with Ebola began receiving donated blood this week.   

Texas Gov. Rick Perry (R) acknowledged earlier this week that “there were mistakes made” in how Duncan was handled even though there were no new cases.