Hospital Where Ebola Patient Died Defends His Care: Said He Was Treated 'Without Regard to Nationality or Ability to Pay' — But The White Ebola Patients Are Still Alive

Youngor Jallah, daughter of Duncan's fiancèe, disputed the hospital's assurances that he had received the quality of care that anyone else would have. "That's the way they feel, but for me, I don't think so," she said. Duncan was treated differently, she believes, because he was African and lacked health insurance.

Thomas Eric Duncan's mother, Nowai Korkoyah.

By Molly Hennessy-Fiske and Michael Muskal
Ebola victim Thomas Eric Duncan was treated professionally and compassionately — without regard for his nationality or ability to pay, the hospital that treated him said Thursday, one day after he died.

Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas was responding to complaints from those close to the victim that Duncan, the first person diagnosed with Ebola on U.S. soil, was not treated as well as three white American missionaries who contracted the deadly virus in West Africa but recovered after treatment in Atlanta and Omaha, Neb.

Duncan, who was Liberian, arrived in Dallas on Sept. 20 and sought help in the hospital emergency room the night of Sept. 25, complaining of a headache and a fever that was just over 100 degrees. He was sent home with a prescription for antibiotics but was not diagnosed as a possible Ebola patient, even though he told the health care team he had been in West Africa, where more than 3,800 people are suspected to have died from Ebola.

Three days later, Duncan was rushed back to the hospital by ambulance and placed in isolation until he died.

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