Nurse who survived Ebola is suing the hospital

allnurses Guide · Mar 10, 2015

Please read this article. It explains a lot about the lawsuit.

The real story of how a Dallas nurse got Ebola could be worse than we ever imagined
The real story of how a Dallas nurse got Ebola could be worse than we ever imagined | Business Insider India

Horseshoe, BSN, RN · Mar 10, 2015

Please read this article. It explains a lot about the lawsuit.

I'm going to take issue with a statement from the lawsuit:

Nina was shocked. She had never been trained to handled infectious diseases, never been told anything about Ebola, how to treat Ebola, or how to protect herself as a nurse treating an Ebola patient. The hospital had never given her any ... training or guidance about Ebola. All Nina knew about Ebola is what she had heard on television.

Nina Pham states that she never had "any" training on infectious diseases? I am willing to believe she had no training about ebola specifically. I'm willing to bet more than 90% of US nurses had no ebola training either. But to say she had no training whatsoever in infectious diseases cannot be true. And I would question whether the burden of that is on our hospitals to provide remedial training to people representing themselves as Bachelor's prepared nurses.

From Nina's prestigious and expensive private school:

Pham, 26, is a 2010 graduate of the Bachelors of Science in Nursing program at Texas Christian University, according to Lisa Albert, a spokesperson for the school. The four-year program prepares nurses to serve as liaisons among doctors, patients and other members of the health care team,â€ according to the school website.There is not a stand-alone course on infections disease work, but infection prevention strategies are "woven throughout all clinical coursework," according to Albert. Precautionary methods are introduced at the start of clinical course work, reviewed through the curriculum, and students sign an end-of-semester document attesting to this work.

I support Nina's right to sue and believe the hospital should settle with her. However, I also think she should get her lawyer to clean up the language in her suit and limit comments to things which are relevant and which don't make it appear she was incompetent.

ChellyFutureNP · Mar 14, 2015

This will make her extremely desirable for future employment as a nurse.

Not sure about this statement. My facility did not have any Ebola protocol in place until after the Ebola scare. Some things or diseases cannot be expected at our hospital, which included Ebola, especially if it is not prevalent in the area. I understand that her facility should have been more supportive of her but I wouldn't expect to have protocols for every diseases on the face of the Earth to be in place at our facility. That's not realistic.

PacoUSA, BSN, RN · Mar 15, 2015

Not sure about this statement. My facility did not have any Ebola protocol in place until after the Ebola scare. Some things or diseases cannot be expected at our hospital, which included Ebola, especially if it is not prevalent in the area. I understand that her facility should have been more supportive of her but I wouldn't expect to have protocols for every diseases on the face of the Earth to be in place at our facility. That's not realistic.

I'm sure it was a facetious statement.

Sent from my iPad using allnurses

trinitymaster · Mar 15, 2015

The truth will eventually come out that the CDC intentionally misled everyone so that the hospitals would not have to invest so much money in proper protective gear. The CDC knew that Ebola virus were potentially airborne.

From the NIH in 2012:

findings support the hypothesis that airborne transmission may contribute to ZEBOV (Zaire-ebola virus) spread, specifically from pigs to primates, and may need to be considered in assessing transmission from animals to humans in general.

Horseshoe, BSN, RN · Mar 15, 2015

The truth will eventually come out that the CDC intentionally misled everyone so that the hospitals would not have to invest so much money in proper protective gear. The CDC knew that Ebola virus were potentially airborne.
From the NIH in 2012:
findings support the hypothesis that airborne transmission may contribute to ZEBOV (Zaire-ebola virus) spread, specifically from pigs to primates, and may need to be considered in assessing transmission from animals to humans in general.

That study never showed that ebola was airborne. It was actually debunked even further in a follow up study by one of the original authors of the first study. This has been discussed numerous times in the ebola thread here at AN.

trinitymaster · Mar 16, 2015

That study never showed that ebola was airborne. It was actually debunked even further in a follow up study by one of the original authors of the first study. This has been discussed numerous times in the ebola thread here at AN.

Ebola is airborne. The CDC even mentions then casually dismisses an airborne case.

I am old enough to remember when the government said that only gay men could get HIV because it was spread by gays sharing anal douches. They completely ignored AIDS in the 70's

I remember when they said the blood supply was protected. Then AIDS and HEP B was linked to blood transfusions. Hell, Phil Donohue was talking more about the mysterious illness (AIDS) then any government agency.

Only one example, of course, but there are many others.

They lie.....We die

Horseshoe, BSN, RN · Mar 16, 2015

Ebola is airborne.

Ebola is absolutely NOT airborne. Going over this again and again...

John Duncan was around scores of people in Dallas even AFTER he became very sick. None of his close contacts became ill. If ebola was airborne, we would have had a raging fire of ebola patients in Dallas. Instead, we had a grand total of 2.

Even in Africa the pattern of infection doesn't suggest airborne.

That's just absolute nonsense not backed up by any science whatsoever.

trinitymaster · Mar 16, 2015

Ebola is absolutely NOT airborne. Going over this again and again...
John Duncan was around scores of people in Dallas even AFTER he became very sick. None of his close contacts became ill. If ebola was airborne, we would have had a raging fire of ebola patients in Dallas. Instead, we had a grand total of 2.
Even in Africa the pattern of infection doesn't suggest airborne.
That's just absolute nonsense not backed up by any science whatsoever.

Ebola virus can be spread through airborne particles under experimental conditions in animals

Visit this site before the CDC takes it down or modifies it like they have so many others.

If Ebola did not have the potential to be airborne then it would not be a Level 4

Read this CNN report from 2012:

Experts think it's unlikely the current outbreak would spread to the United States

Editorial Team / Admin · Mar 16, 2015

Ebola virus can be spread through airborne particles under experimental conditions in animals
Visit this site before the CDC takes it down or modifies it like they have so many others.

Might I suggest you read this thread: https://allnurses.com/disasters-preparing-responding/new-ebola-patient-959487.html , particularly the posts by wtbcrna refuting studies attempting to show Ebola as airborne?

If Ebola were truly an airborne transmission concern, then we would have seen many more people infected, especially those who were around Mr. Duncan before he was admitted. The outbreak in Africa would be much much worse. As a healthcare professional, you should know how to critique research studies- not all research was created equal.

And directly from the webpage you linked:

Airborne transmission of Ebola virus has been hypothesized but not demonstrated in humans.

Airborne transmission has been hypothesized. â€‹Hypothesized does not equal proved.

icuRNmaggie, BSN, RN · Mar 16, 2015

I'm confused by something. If Nina Pham was not aware that she was being videotaped, why did she wave and "say come to Maryland everybody!"

caroladybelle, BSN, RN · Mar 16, 2015

Ebola is airborne. The CDC even mentions then casually dismisses an airborne case.
I am old enough to remember when the government said that only gay men could get HIV because it was spread by gays sharing anal douches. They completely ignored AIDS in the 70's
I remember when they said the blood supply was protected. Then AIDS and HEP B was linked to blood transfusions. Hell, Phil Donohue was talking more about the mysterious illness (AIDS) then any government agency.
e

There is only one form of Ebola cited as being airbourne and that is Ebola-Reston, which does not affect humans but only certain species of primates. This topic was initially explored briefly in the book "The Hot Zone", and more indepth later. The name of the virus, comes from Reston, Va, from a (now decommissioned) USAMIRID connected facility. It is also a very rare form

There is no other proven airbourne form of Ebola.

If other forms of Ebola are indeed currently airbourne, it would have been widespread worldwide much earlier and have the results similar or worse than the Spanish Flu of the WWI, and post era. HCWers, researchers, infectious disease workers have been back and forth to hot zones for 40 years without signs of infection that would indicate airbourne spread and without causing massive spread.

In addition, I was involved with AIDs when it was GRID, and I do not recall any REPUTABLE source that would have said AIDs was only d/t gay anal douching. By 1982, plenty of us knew IVDA, male and female, many straight, hemophiliacs, etc. that were diagnosed and were obviously not gay anal douch sharers.

Until the very late 1970s, there was not an established disease pattern, just a new illness with specific immunosuppressive effects and cancers associate. It was in the 1990s that most connections were noted , though research was hobbled by a government headed by Reagan and unwilling to spend on a disease that affected mostly gay men, drug users and hemophiliacs. Even after the virus was IDed, Reagan would not admit that there was a disease. As such, why would the Red Cross test the blood supply?

As it stands, it was already known in the very early 1980s that Hep B was in the blood supplies as hemophiliacs has a propensity to develop the disease. Blood banks however chose not to test for HepB because they considered it too expensive. They had to be forced to do so by public opinion.

Ebola is not AIDs. It has been around as longer or longer. We know a.great deal about it. It has been miraculous that it has not caused more issues and gotten to our shores sooner. But it does a disservice to freak out over a disease that poses limited threat compared to the much greater threats around us. I choose to worry about what is actually causing disease and destruction and not waste time and worry by dreaming up what has not been show to cause disease.