TX RN positive Ebola

Horseshoe, BSN, RN · Oct 13, 2014

Very upsetting and hoping that the nurse is of the same blood type as the potential American serum donors.

NurseQT · Oct 13, 2014

Curious as to what the breach in protocol was...

MrsICURN14 · Oct 13, 2014

I work at a big hospital about 5 miles away and my husband has already given me permission to quit if we get an Ebola patient. Scary stuff.

BonnieSc · Oct 13, 2014

I'm very curious about this "breach in protocol". Some articles/quotes make it sound like they know what it was, and others make it sound like they're just presuming that's what it was. This is what makes me wonder: we keep hearing that Ebola is hard to catch, that you have to be working very closely with a person's bodily fluids without protection, etc. And we all know that it is incredibly easy to make either an intentional or unintentional error in infection control protocol. (By "intentional", I mean "I'm just going to set something down on the table, I'll skip gowning up..."). But what kind of error in protocol would also result in being exposed to Ebola if it's really so hard to catch? I may be imperfect at times about MRSA protocols, but I don't go around wiping feces without gloves... much less one I know has Ebola. Something isn't adding up for me here. Is Ebola easier to catch than they're letting on? It doesn't change my willingness to serve (yes, I absolutely would, I'd be in Liberia now if I weren't about to go serve in another part of Africa), but I would like to know.

NanikRN · Oct 13, 2014

Prob a mistake(post deleted)

cdsavannah59, CNA · Oct 13, 2014

I tend to believe the news reports that somewhere their was a breech in protocol.

raisincookie · Oct 13, 2014

AP Enterprise: Records chronicle how Ebola kills

If the article is to believed (which I'm weary about), there wouldn't have been proper PPE precautions if he had just arrived at the ER and he would have arrived vomiting and having diarrhea?

Horseshoe, BSN, RN · Oct 13, 2014

I'm very curious about this "breach in protocol". Some articles/quotes make it sound like they know what it was, and others make it sound like they're just presuming that's what it was. This is what makes me wonder: we keep hearing that Ebola is hard to catch, that you have to be working very closely with a person's bodily fluids without protection, etc. And we all know that it is incredibly easy to make either an intentional or unintentional error in infection control protocol. (By "intentional", I mean "I'm just going to set something down on the table, I'll skip gowning up..."). But what kind of error in protocol would also result in being exposed to Ebola if it's really so hard to catch? I may be imperfect at times about MRSA protocols, but I don't go around wiping feces without gloves... much less one I know has Ebola. Something isn't adding up for me here. Is Ebola easier to catch than they're letting on? It doesn't change my willingness to serve (yes, I absolutely would, I'd be in Liberia now if I weren't about to go serve in another part of Africa), but I would like to know.

If ebola were "easier to catch than they are letting on," then we should have seen MANY of Duncan's contacts ill by now. So far there are none. I'm fully going to expect Louise and at least one of the 3 other "intimate" or "immediate" contacts to come down with it. Their 21 days comes to an end on Sunday. I will be stunned if none of them come down with it. Thrilled, but stunned.

But even discounting them, if it's so easy to catch as many in the cyber world are insisting (there is a contingent of people who absolutely believe it's an airborne transmission), we should have seen many sick people in Dallas who came into contact with this guy during the two days after he became symptomatic. There was a whole list of people who were around him during that time. Why haven't we seen at least a handful of them coming down with it already?

It seems clear to me that a)the sicker the patient gets, the more virus is being shed, so no surprise that a health care worker vs. an early casual contact has succumbed, and b)that there was a breach in protocol. That is not the same as saying that the nurse was careless, or as some in the media have claimed, that the nurse is being blamed or thrown under a bus.

I really REALLY hope they can pinpoint where the "breach" occurred. We can learn from our mistakes, but in order to do that, we have to know what the mistake was.

KRVRN, BSN, RN · Oct 13, 2014

By saying there was a "breach" in protocol, I think they are giving the public the impression that they are on top of it. I don't think there was a specific "breach" that they know of. Protocol is that the PPE prevents transmission. It was transmitted so therefore protocol was breached. Well yeah, duh. It really doesn't say anything.

honestly I'm hoping something in particular happened, like a needlestick or blood splash to the eyes. Otherwise rumors will spread that it's airborne. Well, maybe it is. Watching the news with interest...

Horseshoe, BSN, RN · Oct 13, 2014

By saying there was a "breach" in protocol, I think they are giving the public the impression that they are on top of it. I don't think there was a specific "breach" that they know of. Protocol is that the PPE prevents transmission. It was transmitted so therefore protocol was breached. Well yeah, duh. It really doesn't say anything.
honestly I'm hoping something in particular happened, like a needlestick or blood splash to the eyes. Otherwise rumors will spread that it's airborne. Well, maybe it is. Watching the news with interest...

Something in particular did happen, we just don't know what it is, and Frieden stated exactly that. We may never find out what in particular happened. But as you say, she got infected, so protocol was breached, NOT NECESSARILY by the nurse. Frieden never said the nurse did something stupid or was careless.

And it is most definitely not an airborne disease.

Do people worry all the time if HIV will become airborne? Why not?

Why Ebola is very unlikely to go airborne - Vox

cdsavannah59, CNA · Oct 14, 2014

The breach in protocol could be several things such as not the proper PPE or simply the nurse not removing her gloves in the correct manner we are taught like when we do sterile procedures. Her mishandling of her gloves could of contaminated a open cut she had on hand/finger with any fluids in the gloves.