Presbyterian workers wore no hazmat suits for two days while treating Ebola patient


By Dianna Hunt
dhunt@dallasnews.com
1:06 pm on October 15, 2014
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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