Oct. 8, 2014 -- Thomas Eric Duncan, the first person diagnosed with Ebola in the United States, has died of the disease.
He died at 7:51 a.m. Central time on Wednesday, more than a week after tests confirmed he had Ebola, according to Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas, where he was being treated.
Over the past week, Duncan’s condition had worsened from stable to critical. He was getting dialysis to support his failing kidneys, and was on a ventilator to aid his breathing. He also received an experimental medication, brincidofovir, an antiviral drug that was being developed to treat smallpox. He got the dose on Oct. 6, just hours after the FDA announced it had cleared the drug for emergency use.
On Tuesday, he showed some signs of improvement. The hospital said his liver had improved, but cautioned that could change over the coming days.
“He fought courageously in this battle. Our professionals, the doctors and nurses in the unit, as well as the entire Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas community, are also grieving his passing,” said the brief statement Wednesday, which was signed by Wendell Watson, the hospital’s director of public relations.
Duncan, 42, was a citizen of Liberia. He traveled to the U.S. last month from Monrovia to reunite with his son and his son’s mother, who have been living in the Dallas area.
On Sept. 24, he began feeling unwell. The following evening, a low-grade fever and some abdominal pain prompted him to go to Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, where he told a nurse that he'd recently traveled from Liberia. Despite that, he was prescribed a course of antibiotics -- which would have been useless against a viral infection -- and released.
The hospital has since admitted that Duncan’s travel history wasn't fully relayed between staff members, and as a result, the doctor who treated him didn’t suspect Ebola.
Two days later, when he was taken back to the hospital by ambulance, his fever had spiked, and he was vomiting and having bouts of diarrhea. He was immediately placed in isolation. More tests by a Texas state lab and the CDC confirmed the Ebola diagnosis.
By that time, health officials determined he had made contact with around 48 people, including five school-aged children, though most of those exposures were considered to be low risk. Ten people, including four family members, were being closely watched. The family members are under a court order to remain home and avoid contact with others, the Texas State Health Department says.
His case quickly became the center of a widening public health scare. The CDC said that after his diagnosis, questions about Ebola jumped from an average of 50 to about 800 calls a day.
source : Dallas Ebola Patient, Thomas Eric Duncan, Dies
