Patient Being Treated For Ebola In Texas Dies
Thomas Eric Duncan, the Ebola patient being treated at a Dallas, Texas hospital, passed away from the deadly disease on Wednesday.
Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital released a statement saying it was grieving Duncan's death.
"He fought courageously in this battle," Wendell Watson, a hospital spokesman, said in a statement. "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. We have offered the family our support and condolences at this difficult time."
Louise Troh, Duncan's fiancé in Dallas, also released a statement saying that her future husband's "suffering is over."
"My family is in deep sadness and grief, but we leave him in the hands of God. Our deepest sympathies go out to his father and family in Liberia and here in America. Eric was a wonderful man who showed compassion toward all."
Duncan returned to the U.S. after visiting Liberia on September 20. The Liberian national had reportedly helped a pregnant woman suffering from Ebola get to the hospital while he was in the West African country. When he returned to the U.S., he visited Texas Health Presbyterian complaining of Ebola-like symptoms, and although he told the nurses he had recently visited West Africa, he was turned away from the hospital. He returned three days later when his symptoms worsened and tested positive for the disease.
Center for Disease Control and Prevention Director Dr. Tom Frieden responded to the suggestion Wednesday that the U.S. ban all travel to and from West Africa, where the virus has claimed the lives of over 3,000. Frieden said such a move would do more harm than good.
"It makes it hard to get health workers in, because they can't get out," he said. "If we make it harder to respond to the outbreak in West Africa, it will spread not only in those three countries (in West Africa hit hardest by Ebola) but to other parts of Africa and ultimately increase the risk here [in the U.S.]."
