First Ebola Patient in US Dies: Friend Had To Beg and Complain and Call CDC To Get Him Hospitalized — Was It Due To Lack of Health Insurance?

Wilfred Smallwood, the half-brother of Thomas Eric Duncan, speaks to CNN. (Screen
capture from YouTube video)

By Manny Fernandez
Thomas Eric Duncan, 42, the patient with the first case of Ebola diagnosed in the United States and the Liberian man at the center of a widening public health scare, died in isolation at a hospital here on Wednesday, hospital authorities said.

Mr. Duncan died at 7:51 a.m. at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, more than a week after the virus was detected in him on Sept. 30. His condition had worsened in recent days to critical from serious as medical personnel worked to support his fluid and electrolyte levels, crucial to recovery in a disease that causes bleeding, vomiting and diarrhea. Mr. Duncan was also treated with an experimental antiviral drug, brincidofovir, after the Food and Drug Administration approved its use on an
emergency basis.

His friend said that Duncan had a fever and vomiting during this first visit to the Dallas hospital. The hospital, in a statement Wednesday, said he had a "low grade fever and abdominal pain."
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Duncan left the medical facility after being given antibiotics and a pain reliever, his friend said. "His condition did not warrant admission," the hospital said. "He also was not exhibiting symptoms specific to Ebola."

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The friend -- frustrated and feeling hospital staff wasn't doing enough -- then reportedly called the CDC about Duncan's case. The CDC told the friend to call Texas' Department of Health, with the message eventually getting to the hospital.  CNN Report

After he arrived at the Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport on Sept. 20, Mr. Duncan set off a chain of events that raised questions about health officials’ preparedness to detect and contain the deadly virus. His case spread fear and anxiety among those he encountered, however briefly, and turned the places, vehicles and items he touched into biohazardous sites that were decontaminated, dismantled, stored or, in some cases, incinerated.

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