Co-workers of a Dallas nurse who contracted Ebola from a sick patient say they worked for days without proper protective gear and that the hospital's Ebola protocols and procedures were unclear and inadequate, leaving workers and hospital systems prone to contamination.Duncan was left in a nonquarantined zone for several hours, and a nurse supervisor faced resistance from hospital authorities after demanding that Duncan be moved to an isolation unit. Additionally, Duncan's lab specimens were sent through the hospital's tube system, potentially contaminating the entire system, the nurses said.
Nurses who interacted with Duncan were given the option of wearing special N95 masks, but some supervisors said the masks were not necessary, the nurses said, according to the statement.
"For their necks, nurses had to use medical tape, that is not impermeable and has permeable seams, to wrap around their necks in order to protect themselves, and had to put on the tape and take it off on their own," the statement reads. "Nurses had to interact with Mr. Duncan with whatever protective equipment was available, at a time when he had copious amounts of [explosive] diarrhea and [projectile] vomiting which produces a lot of contagious fluids."
Apparently they were using regular "earloop" type masks, not full coverage respirators, which had attached disposable faceshields, and worse: paper type gowns, not the solid waterproof ones. This isnt bad medical personnel, this is classic bad administration. Trying to contain costs when they should be trying to contain disease and instead putting their people (and the public) at risk.