This is Thomas Eric Duncan...the young man from Liberia who was diagnosed with the Ebola virus in Dallas a few weeks ago...Why did he die when every other person diagnosed with it in America has survived so far?
The family of Ebola victim Thomas Eric Duncan are venting their outrage that the late Liberian may not have received the same quality of care leading up to his death Wednesday morning as the other patients treated in the U.S. for the dreaded virus.
''No one has died of Ebola in the U.S. before. This is the first time,'' Duncan's furious nephew Joe Weeks told ABC.
Joe Weeks and others in Duncan's family are calling his treatment ''unfair,'' after seeing other patients pulled from the brink of death in government-funded evacuation planes and using life-saving blood transfusions and cutting edge drugs.
Five US citizens have been diagnosed with Ebola and three of them have beaten it. NBC News cameraman Ashoka Mukpo, the latest American victim, arrived at the infectious disease ward at the University of Nebraska Medical Center this week for treatment. A fourth victim, a World Health Organization doctor, is being treated in Atlanta.
All five have been flown to specially-designed infectious disease wards in Nebraska or Atlanta for treatment by some of the world's top doctors. The anger from Duncan's family also stems from what happened before Duncan was seen by doctors but after he fell ill - when the Liberian was initially turned sent home by Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital - the same hospital that later admitted him.
''What if they had taken him right away? And what if they had been able to get treatment to him earlier,' said Dallas pastor George Mason, a confidante of the family's, according to a CNN report. While Mason told reporters that Duncan's fiance Louise Troh 'is not seeking to create any kinds of divisions in our community,' she has called for a full review of his medical care.
A memorial service was held at Wilshire Baptist Church on Wednesday evening for Mr Duncan after he passed away at 7.51am. Senior Pastor George Mason led prayers for the congregation that included community leaders and a small number of friends and family of Mr Duncan.
The pastor told the large congregation who had gathered to mourn his passing, that Mr Duncan’s dying wish was to see his son. That desire were the last words spoken by the first Ebola victim to die on American soil - and it was a desperate hope he did not live to fulfill.
His remains were sent for cremation on Thursday, Fox reported. Health authorities said it had been removed from Texas Presbyterian but gave no details on the location of the crematorium.
The ashes will then be returned to Mr Duncan's family. None other than the Reverend Jesse Jackson appeared in public with Duncan's mother, raising the specter of legal action against the hospital as he condemned Duncan's treatment. ''He got sick and went to the hospital and was turned away, and that's the turning point here,'' the Rev Jackson, a spokesman for the family, told CNN's Wolf Blitzer.
The family seem to be suggesting that further turning points would follow once Duncan finally received treatment.
When Duncan first went to Texas Presbyterian on September 25, he was sent home with a prescription for antibiotics and was never tested for Ebola, despite telling nurses that he had come from Ebola-stricken Liberia. Unlike Ebola victims Dr Rick Sacra and NBC cameraman Ashoka Mukpo, Duncan did not receive a transfusion of blood from American Ebola survivor Dr Kent Brantly after he was finally diagnosed. Weeks says doctors told the family ''that the blood wasn’t a match.''
I know...I know... Some of you will say "How dare you play the race card." But the facts speak for themselves...Those white physicians who arrived in Atlanta with the Ebola Virus are well now....This poor man was initially turned away from the hospital and told to take a few aspirin...When he goes to get treatment, his condition gets worse and he dies...and what color is his skin??
These are facts and if I am asking these questions...So should some of you...The question remains...
Why Did He Die? Why did he have to die?
1 comment:
Keith, you can shuffle the entire deck and deal! The race cards are played in every action in this case. Turning Mr. Duncan away initially was just the beginning. All the other patients received blood transfusions from survivors, not Mr. Duncan! There are questions to be answered and there should be accountability for this difference in treatment.
Have a great weekend and don't make any Ebola jokes on the train ride home!!
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