Ebola-infected nurse in “fair condition,” speaks from hospital room
Nina Pham remained upbeat before being transferred to Bethesda, Maryland
Nina Pham tested positive for Ebola. The 26 year old nurse from Dallas, Texas was among the health care crew taking care of Eric Duncan. Ebola took Duncan’s life, October 8.
Prior to being transported to Bethesda, Maryland to receive more intensive treatment, Pham seemed to be in good spirits. She teared up saying, “I love you guys. Come to Maryland!” This video was filmed last night before to her departure from Dallas:
Today, Dr. Anthony Fauci, Head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases held an optimistic press conference. He indicated Pham was in fair condition and said, “we fully intend to have this patient walk out of the hospital.” According to NBC News:
Nina Pham, the Ebola-infected nurse flown from a Dallas hospital to a National Institutes of Health isolation unit, is doing well, sitting up and eating, doctors said Friday. Pham, 26, is one of two health-care workers infected while caring for Thomas Eric Duncan, the Liberian man who died at Texas Health Presbyterian hospital on Oct. 8.
“She (is) in fair condition,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told reporters outside the Bethesda, Maryland hospital. “We fully intend to have this patient walk out of this hospital.”
Pham is tired after a long trip, hospital officials told reporters outside the NIH clinical center, a large research hospital that has a special isolation unit. “She is resting comfortably, She is interacting with the staff. She is eating,” said Dr. Rick Davey, deputy clinical director at the NIAID, one of the NIH institutes, who examined Pham.
But she’s also going to have ups and downs as her body fights off the virus, said Fauci. “You may start seeing a change in the status,” he said. Ebola patients suffer often violent vomiting and diarrhea. “She is very fatigued,” Fauci said. “This is a virus that wreaks havoc on you. This virus knocks you out.”
Last night, President Obama signed an Executive Order authorizing a call up of the reserves, “it is necessary to augment the active Armed Forces of the United States for the effective conduct of Operation United Assistance” if Ebola spreads widely.
Hazmat crews were called to a Houston suburb after a woman died in her home last night. She’d recently travelled to Nigeria.
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Comments
Good luck to her..
Best wishes to Nurse Pham for a fast and complete recovery.
What a mess of complicated thoughts regarding her case, as I had with Duncan’s. If Duncan had survived the skies would full of Liberians and others already with virus. Of course, may G-d cure her!
But what of the result of her living — Obama’s dangerous policy and the Administrative State’s shield phrases of “protocols” and of “not an airborne infection” will be shining aglow. Like the flame on a fuse lighting stick.
What got to me, if I understood the video correctly, was that she was a volunteer. She chose to care for Mr. Duncan. I am so sorry that she (somehow) was infected.
I’m wondering if she part of that group who thinks that the whole Ebola thing is over-hyped. Is that why she chose to volunteer? Odd on so many levels how this whole thing is being played out.
There is that nebulous risk in all patient care, but to enter into the room to be face to face with a deadly disease takes on the heroic. There are still many pieces to the puzzle of how and what this killer virus can presently do. That notches up the risk even more. Put the CDC Director (fellowship in infectious disease) in harm’s way and maybe he can begin to gain some of the respect we must give this nurse. Time to suit up doc and walk the walk buddy.
Are you suggesting that ‘CDC Director (fellowship in infectious disease)’ has never been in harm’s way? That seems highly unlikely. Have you seen his CV?
Clearly he and his agency made some bad mistakes. So let’s all make this political.
While we are at it, had he spared no expense and neglected other duties in order to devote all effort to Ebola, would you be criticizing that? My understanding is that he works with a budget and that budget was cut during the sequester.
“Clearly he and his agency made some bad mistakes. So let’s all make this political.”
Indeed. We should all just do and think only what Obama and the odoriferous one says. Then all would be well in the world.
As I recall, the doctor who walked into that hospital, and survived, suffered through a horrible downhill slide. I fear this is just the beginning for her. May God bless her, and keep her.