‘Nurses are not protected, they’re not prepared for Ebola’: Angry nursing union says NO US hospital can cope – and claim hazardous waste was piled to the CEILING of Thomas Eric Duncan’s room
- The National Nurses Union say nurses at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital have reported grave lapses in protecting healthcare workers
- There were no concrete protocols to deal with Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan, nurses claimed
- A second nurse who cared for Duncan has been diagnosed with the disease on Wednesday
- Nurses are furious by angered by CDC Director Tom Frieden’s attempts to ‘pass the blame’ to infected nurse Nina Pham
- Nurses say their necks and wrists were exposed when treating Duncan
- Hazardous waste from Duncan ‘left to pile up to the ceiling in one room’
- CDC confirmed on Tuesday that 76 medics who treated Mr Duncan are being monitored for Ebola exposure
Nurses at the Dallas hospital where the first patient died of Ebola in the US insisted there were no protocols in place for dealing with the virus – and claimed that no hospital in the country was prepared to deal with the deadly virus.
The director of the National Nurses Union RoseAnn DeMoro directly contradicted the CDC’s initial claim that a breach in protocol lead to the infection of Nina Pham as she treated Thomas Eric Duncan at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas.
She said: ‘Our nurses are not protected, they’re not prepared to handle Ebola or any other pandemics.’
‘The protocols that should have been in place in Dallas were not in place and are not in place anywhere in the United States, as far as we can tell.’
The warnings became even more poignant after it was revealed that a second female nurse who treated Duncan has been diagnosed with the deadly infection.
Both she and Ms Pham are being treated in isolation rooms at Texas Presbyterian Hospital.
Ms DeMoro and co-director Deborah Burger revealed that nurses from Texas Presbyterian Hospital have reported several grievous lapses in protection for healthcare workers who looked after Duncan.
The union, which does not represent any of the nurses at Texas Presbyterian, said the healthcare workers came to them because they believed they had no other way to report the dangerous security lapses.
Harold