MY Dallas Ebola Theory

[Dreamer Tatum]

Last edited Sat Oct 4, 2014, 12:21 PM - Edit history (1)

See what you think:


1. A dude got Ebola from someone when he was in Africa.

2. He came to the US infected, perhaps in denial, perhaps carelessly.

3. He became sicker and went to the hospital.

4. Owing to the 0.0 cases of Ebola in this country, along with hospital personnel evidently believing everything this
guy said, he was sent home.

5. Guy got much sicker and went back. More information, along with the fact of his illness, became apparent and
either correct protocols were followed or were hastily developed.

6. News got out.

7. Texas-hating DUers experienced Ebola-like symptoms of their own as their bodies processed the incomprehensible joy of yet another Texas-flavored chew toy to suck on.

8. Serious people work to create proper institutions to handle an actual outbreak in this country, while unserious people devise new and increasingly rococo methods to inject politics into a public health issue.

I believe in my theory.

[JayhawkSD]

1. You need to be better informed.

He did not "come back to the US." He lives in Liberia and came to the US to visit relatives who live here. If you are going to formulate theories about things and write about them, you need to inform yourself about them first.

[Dreamer Tatum]

2. Wait - we have to be informed before we wirte?

Good to know.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

30. Yes, it is good to know what one is "wirting" about. nt

[Cali_Democrat]

3. Hahahahahaha

You convieniently left out the fact the hospital let him go even when they knew he traveled from Liberia.

I thought this post might be interesting, but it seems you're just offended that some anonymous posters on a message board said mean things about Texas.

[Dreamer Tatum]

6. Yes - here is a critical element of my theory. Gulp, here goes...

THE HOSPITAL MESSED UP.

I know that in this day of utter, complete error-free America, it's impossible to imagine that anyone
would mess up, but it certainly appears to be that case that someone charged with providing
healthcare MADE AN AWFUL MISTAKE.

[Cali_Democrat]

7. Funny how you get offended when people criticize Texans, yet here's what you said about Californians

Face it, folks, the guy is pretty much what most people in SoCal are: narcissistic, celebrity-obsessed, vain, self-righteous, delusional, Facebook-centric, and hanging out at Big Bear. The only difference is that instead of kicking the tires at Fletcher Jones for fun, Dorner KILLS people. He has nothing to say, or he'd be saying it.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022355976

Thou doth protest too much.

[seabeyond]

8. i do not even like texas. i live here. looking for a way out. really, texas is not my home. BUT..

i think the way dallas is being attack is unreasonable and short sighted and wrong.

[Dreamer Tatum]

9. I stand by that post. And spoiler alert - I live in SoCal. nt

[Cali_Democrat]

12. So it's ok for DUers to hate on Texans as long as they live there

If any DUer hates on Texas, we need to ask them if they live there. If they do, then it's OK.

Brilliant.

[Dreamer Tatum]

13. You dug up one SoCal-ripping post and place it against surely THOUSANDS of anti-Texas threads.

Whatever.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

31. OK whatever. But I thought you were all about busting the many hypocrites we have on this site. If

anything you should be commending the poster above. Don't you think?

[Dreamer Tatum]

33. Have to say, you got me there. nt

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

34. Damn it! That is not the honest response I expected. I demand you insult me now. So we both can end

looking petty and childish!! On second thought, I guess I don't need much help in that area since I'm perfectly capable of presenting myself that way........ Wait what was I talking about?.....

[Dreamer Tatum]

39. Hey man...when I'm got, I'm got. nt

[seabeyond]

4. couple ooopses, could be more to the point, but basically, i agree. the man KNEW he was with a sick

woman that died of ebola. the gf/wife that went said she said... liberia twice. as if the nurse is suppose to connect it, dontcha know. why the hell didnt she or the man cut to the chase, and inform ALL he was with a woman that died of ebola ten days ago.

a son or someone finally called cdc and said EBOLA>

they knew

[Mariana]

22. We don't know that he was aware the woman had Ebola.

Some of the stories have said they thought the woman had pregnancy complications.

That's one of the problems here. The "news" outlets hear a rumour or speculation or even an outright lie (the BS about the computer system at the hospital is an example of that) and they go ahead and report it. They don't make any effort to find out if what they've heard is actually true before they report it. We can't take any of what these "news" stories say as gospel. Most of them, hell maybe ALL of them, are full of bullshit.

[B2G]

5. I particularly like 7 & 8 nt

[leftstreet]

10. 7. News got out. 8. Shoved US bombings off headlines n/t

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

11. So you're making the outlandish claim...

...that the folks at the hospital made a mistake?
I find that totally unbelievable.

In 2010, the Office of Inspector General for the Department of Health and Human Services said that bad hospital care contributed to the deaths of 180,000 patients in Medicare alone in a given year.

Now comes a study in the current issue of the Journal of Patient Safety that says the numbers may be much higher — between 210,000 and 440,000 patients each year who go to the hospital for care suffer some type of preventable harm that contributes to their death.

That would make medical errors the third-leading cause of death in America, behind heart disease, which is the first, and cancer, which is second.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2013/09/20/224507654/how-many-die-from-medical-mistakes-in-u-s-hospitals

[world wide wally]

14. Point #1: Why do Texasand Florida give us so many bones to chew on?

Point # 2: Why aren't we supposed to say anything?
Point #3: Can we mention that Texas won't accept one hundred billion dollars to implement Obamacare yet? I wonder how soon you're going to need that. Actually, what we ALL need is National health care for just this reason.

Now don't get me started on the politicians y'all elect down there.

[Dreamer Tatum]

15. Who is y'all in this scenario?

You can say whatever you like.

[world wide wally]

17. The vast majority of voters down there are y'all.

As always, this is generalized statement and I know Texas has millions of great people, but they are outweighed by the ignorant asses by far too much. I lived in Austin for two years and it was actually one of the best places I have been, but it is like an island in a sea of ignorance. I'm sure there are other islands as well, but let's face it. Texas as given us Louie Ghomert, Rick Perry, and G.W. himself. Those are just some serious bones to chew on.

[msanthrope]

27. Pennsylvania, too. nt

[TBF]

16. Pretty good theory -

I knew it was likely to come to TX first because of our oil & gas industry. I actually expected it to come to Houston first. As an immune compromised individual (due to medications I take) I am nervous about Ebola, but confident that the hospitals in Houston are far better than those in Liberia. I'm extremely grateful for our very expensive (but very good) health insurance.

I agree with you that working to create the facilities to handle an outbreak here is the critical piece. I know we have the capability to do so.

[kestrel91316]

18. Politics and public health are deeply entwined, especially in Texas and other

red states that systematically oppose the existence of ALL government services by refusing to provide the necessary funding and otherwise working to undermine them.

Have you been living in a cave??

[Barack_America]

19. #5 is easier. He ruled-in for severe sepsis, which is an automatic ticket to the ICU.

High fever, hypotension, eventually a lactate would have been drawn and been elevated = welcome to the ICU, Mr. Duncan. The ICU attending would've notified the ICU resident of the pending admission, who would've begun scouring the record and noticed, "holy shit, Liberia?!?!", if the ED hadn't already realized their fuck up. The ICU vs. ED battle at that point would have been epic (ICU docs don't tend to think much of ED docs). As much as I hated working in the ICU, I almost wish I had been there...almost. The Infectious disease fellow probably shit himself/herself with excitement after getting that call.

[magical thyme]

25. in my ED, depending on who was on, he would have had a lactate,

blood cultures (if the blood culture doc was on), d-dimer/crp/esr (if d-dimer don was on) along with the usual cbc, cmp and urinalysis. Blood culture doc and d-dimer don just automatically order those tests no matter what.

Unless he was catheterized, the urinalysis would have been a nightmare, with the urine cup lid not correctly screwed on and anywhere from a few drops to the entire effing specimen in the baggie instead of the cup. For that we'd be cussing them out, until we found out he was positive for Ebola, in which case we'd be shitting our pants and immediately put into the high risk category.

[uppityperson]

20. You made me laugh here. eom

[bobthedrummer]

21. Gilead Sciences partnered with Glaxo in 1990 manufacturing the genetic code blocker antisense.

In 1998 antisense research intellectual property rights were sold to Isis Pharmaceuticals.

No theories here at all.

[pnwmom]

23. Point 4. You left out the key part where he and relatives told staff he'd been in Liberia

and that this information was in his computer records and fully available to everyone involved in his care.

And that his doctor, after recently undergoing training about Ebola, apparently forgot to ask HIMSELF if Duncan had been traveling recently -- or else to take that into account.

[magical thyme]

28. and the part about how his temperature was not above 101.5F, which is what is considered symptomatic

so maybe what needs to be revised is exactly what symptoms are considered at risk.

http://emergencypublichealth.net/tag/prevention/

Although his family had informed the healthcare workers of his recent arrival from Liberia, the hospital personnel decided he did not meet the criteria for Ebola suspicion since he did not have a temperature greater than 101.5 degrees Fahrenheit.

[Crunchy Frog]

32. Apparently unaware that the earliest symptoms are mild and nonspecific.

Any spike in temp at all is cause for immediate suspicion in someone whose just been in the hot zone, or has potentially been exposed to Ebola.

If any of the people currently in quarantine start to show symptoms, I certainly hope they don't insist on waiting till the temps exceed 101.5 before isolating them.

[magical thyme]

36. that is per CDC guidelines. nt

[Crunchy Frog]

38. Well that just fills me with confidence in our public health institutions.

[pnwmom]

35. I agree that that temperature is too high. I've had pneumonia with a temp no higher than 100. n/t

[U4ikLefty]

24. I blame Tony Romo!!!

He's responsible for everything wrong in Dallas.

[Rex]

26. BBI!

[Crunchy Frog]

29. I've got a theory that the local authorities

Locked the people he was staying with were locked up in a contaminated apartment filled with biohazard waste for nearly a week, at times without access to food, and that they left a pile of puke sitting on the sidewalk for days before sending someone to hose it down.

God bless Texas and their heroic response to this potential public health crisis.

[Kingofalldems]

40. My theory: You don't like DU or most of it's members.

Just a theory of course.

[intaglio]

41. Firstly, the hospital passed a DHS test and was nominatied as the area hospital for Ebola

Secondly, it had held a drill earlier in the week about what to do with a patient displaying Ebola symptoms

Thirdly, his family know he informed the hospital of his trip and his concerns and they sent him home with an aspirin.

Check Friday's Rachel Maddow Show for the details.

No Texas hate just despicable morons at the hospital igoring the patient.

[Crunchy Frog]

45. Yes, but if you don't have a fever over 101.5 and puking up blood

you're not symptomatic, or so I've been assured on this thread. So they did the right thing to send him home the first time.

[ucrdem]

42. The very word "Dallas" gives some of us pause. . .

If I were more conspiratorially minded, which I am not, I might think the whole Ebola business has seemed for the last several weeks like an effort to create a pandemic in the US, or the fear of one. Why? I will leave that to the conspiratorially minded to say, but we do have an important election coming up in exactly one month.

[Dreamer Tatum]

43. You and Farrakhan would be buds. nt

[ucrdem]

47. Let us not get carried away in our imaginings. nt

[Cleita]

44. I think it's almost karma that the same people who were down

at the border screaming at little brown children and accusing them of bringing in Ebola would be he first state to actually get Ebola but not from the source they were accusing. It's almost like what goes around come around.

[Dreamer Tatum]

46. That'll learn 'em. nt