Nurse Under Ebola Quarantine Criticizes Her Treatment

I think the issue is more of how she was treated by the people at the airport and hospital. You CAN follow procedure AND treat people with compassion, dignity and respect.

The problem here is that this person came from a position of being the savior to being the potential victim.
She was in charge over there. Here she's a victim who is being controlled.
Yes, she did a good thing.
Yes, the procedure in the airport was a fluster cluck.
Yes, she's upset.
It's all part of being thrown into so many emotional extremes. Of course she's upset.

But...
It's going to get worse. People need to sack up and deal.

As far as the poster who was lauding the reliability of medical professionals...?
Current events!
They have endangered people in three US states and freaking BOLIVIA on the ebola cruise. So no. They cannot be trusted. They have proven this with their recent behavior.

So far, with ebola, medical people have shown a surprising degree of arrogance and lack of concern for their fellow man.

I admire these people for going over there and helping with this ebola epidemic but they must understand that they are a threat to this country until they have been properly quarantined and have been proven to not have the virus.

Meanwhile, it might be nice if the government got their heads out of their butts for the duration of the pandemic and try treating their citizens like people.

originally posted by: ispyed
a reply to: diggindirt

So its punishment. I think medical staff are far more responsible than your normal citizen. I'm sure they can be allowed to self-monitor responsibly. It is like being punished to help. Counter-intuitive.



You may see a reduction in people going to help in West Africa if they are going to be punished when they get home.

The real problem is everybody else.

People only have so much alturism.

No, it's not punishment, it's the law, made to protect the public from stupid people like this whining woman. I'm terribly sorry they didn't have her 5 star hotel room awaiting her but it was all new and different for the folks working there. If this woman went to work among ebola patients, she knew this was a possibility, or should have known, if she read the materials provided by the sponsoring organization.
There's absolutely no reason this quarantine period can't be simply worked into the volunteer's schedule. They volunteer for 6 to 9 months. All that is required is that they spend their last 21 days in quarantine in country. All this moaning and witching is just symptomatic of the arrogance of a goodly segment of the health care field.
No, I'm not going to Africa to volunteer to help people with ebola. But you can bet that if I were, I wouldn't only expect, I would demand to be in quarantine before I left the country just to protect my fellow humans. It is just common sense and a proven way of containing disease. It is the scientific way to deal with it.

a reply to: diggindirt

I looked into this a bit yesterday/day before, and I believe that their commitment to MSF/DWB is 6-9 months but they go over for 3-4 weeks at a time, and MSF/DWB is saying this effectively doubles their time away from home.

Which brings up another point...some say that 21 days is really not even enough. Maybe in the majority of cases, but in a smaller percentage of cases, the incubation or whatever time you want to call it, is longer.

originally posted by: ~Lucidity
a reply to: diggindirt

I looked into this a bit yesterday/day before, and I believe that their commitment to MSF/DWB is 6-9 months but they go over for 3-4 weeks at a time, and MSF/DWB is saying this effectively doubles their time away from home.

Which brings up another point...some say that 21 days is really not even enough. Maybe in the majority of cases, but in a smaller percentage of cases, the incubation or whatever time you want to call it, is longer.

I couldn't deal with that stuff for much longer than 3 or 4 weeks at a time.
Watching people die who you can't help has got to be horrible.
I've seen friends die. Combat is pretty damn stressful but at least in a war you can fight back.

You can't shoot a virus.
I'd feel pretty helpless in that situation.
Emotionally it has to be extremely crushing.

ACLU demands Christie give legal reason for quarantining nurse who's tested negative for Ebola

Source

originally posted by: Gully

ACLU demands Christie give legal reason for quarantining nurse who's tested negative for Ebola

Source

The ACLU needs to ask themselves why they would interfere with a safety measure intended to protect an entire nation from ebola.

They are weirdly selective about which constitutional concerns they address.

Why is it that ideology trumps sanity?

What happens if they prevent anyone from being quarantined? Maybe the next sick doctor doesn't even call the police when they realize they've spread ebola all over town.

It would be a fitting footnote in history if the ACLU became the reason ebola took out a large portion of humanity.

a reply to: Gully

Same source...

In response to an emailed inquiry from a New Jersey Advance Media reporter on Oct. 17 about whether the New Jersey Department of Health thought it had the legal authority to do additional more aggressive Ebola screening beyond those measures already being taken by the federal government, department spokeswoman Donna Leusner replied in an email that “The New Jersey Department of Health and local health agencies have statutory authority to maintain and enforce proper and sufficient quarantine within their respective jurisdictions. The Department is working closely with federal, state and local authorities, including the Office of the Attorney General, to ensure that screening protocols and quarantine continue to be handled in a medically appropriate and legal manner.”

New Jersey state law gives the Department of Health the power to “maintain and enforce proper and sufficient quarantine wherever deemed necessary,” and it also states that is “has the power to remove any person infected with a communicable disease to a suitable place, if in its judgment removal is necessary and can be accomplished without any undue risk to the person infected.”

The ACLU is just making sure. But if they'd like they can take it through the courts. By the time they're done, this ebola crap, with luck, will be over.

All states have statutes regarding this.

State Quarantine and Isolation Statutes

Again, I say, it's the people who didn't think of doing this first and the people with gripes in regards to that and to other agendas who are making this noise. And this nurse is just feeding them.

a reply to: infolurker

Talk about nightmares getting real. This is NOT OKAY. Nurse Kaci Hickox was 'made to feel like criminal' and kept prisoner. She was detained at Newark airport with no explanation, questioned for hours, then kept in isolation at the airport terminal for seven hours and given only a cereal bar to eat. She did NOT have a fever. What happened here, the way it happened, is JUST WRONG.

Think ahead folks. God forbid Ebola comes to America. But if it does, and policy is set by fear, in fear, this is what will happen to YOU. Your children. Your family. Your friends.

I hereby withdraw my support for NY, NJ and Illinois quarantine policies for returning health workers.

A nurse put into isolation on her return from treating patients in Sierra Leone expressed anger at the way she was dealt with at Newark airport.

Kaci Hickox, of medical charity Doctors Without Borders, said the experience was frightening, and described seeing a "frenzy of disorganisation, fear and most frightening, quarantine".

She said she was kept in isolation at the airport terminal for seven hours and given only a cereal bar to eat.

….Hickox is a nurse who had been working with Doctors Without Borders in Sierra Leone. Officials said she was taken to a hospital after developing a fever, but Hickox said she was merely flushed because she was upset by the process.

…."Coercive measures like mandatory quarantine of people exhibiting no symptoms of Ebola and when not medically necessary raise serious constitutional concerns about the state abusing its powers," said Udi Ofer, executive director of the ACLU of New Jersey.

Doctors Without Borders said Hickox has not been issued an order of quarantine specifying how long she must be isolated and is being kept in an unheated tent. It urged the "fair and reasonable treatment" of health workers fighting the Ebola outbreak.

Ebola nurse 'made to feel like criminal' on return to US
Kaci Hickox tests negative but stays in New Jersey isolation
ACLU raises concerns over ‘abuse of police powers’

….Hickox, a volunteer nurse with Doctors Without Borders, was stopped at Newark airport in New Jersey, where she told an immigration official she had travelled from Sierra Leone. She endured several hours of questioning from officials wearing protective coveralls, gloves, masks and face shields. Her temperature was taken, and registered 98F. Then, she said, her temperature was taken a second time.

“Four hours after I landed at the airport, an official approached me with a forehead scanner. My cheeks were flushed, I was upset at being held with no explanation. The scanner recorded my temperature as 101,” she wrote.

Hickox said she was left alone in a room for another three hours before being taken to the hospital, where her temperature was again recorded. This time it was 98.6F.

“I sat alone in the isolation tent and thought of many colleagues who will return home to America and face the same ordeal,” she wrote. “Will they be made to feel like criminals and prisoners?”

….Doctors Without Borders, known internationally as Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), has warned against a mandatory quarantine on medics returning from Ebola-stricken countries, saying it would be an “excessive measure”.

….Guidelines set out by MSF state that returning medics should stay within four hours of a hospital with isolation facilities, but do not require that they avoid crowds so long as they do not display symptoms.

“As long as a returned staff member does not experience any symptoms, normal life can proceed,” the organisation says. “Family, friends, and neighbors can be assured that a returned staff person who does not present symptoms is not contagious and does not put them at risk. Self-quarantine is neither warranted nor recommended when a person is not displaying Ebola-like symptoms.”

….De Blasio told the same press conference that American medical professionals helping to tackle the outbreak in west Africa “are the people who will end this crisis”. He said: “We have to make sure that that flow of medical personnel can continue.”

…. the CDC had tightened its monitoring requirements for those arriving in the US from the three west African countries hardest hit by the outbreak. The new monitoring system goes into effect on Monday in six states – New York, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia, New Jersey and Georgia – and will eventually be expanded across the country.

The new (CDC) guidelines will require anyone who flies from Liberia, Sierra Leone or Guinea ­– regardless of whether they are exhibiting symptoms – to check in daily with state and local health officials. They will be required to report their temperatures and the any appearance of Ebola-like symptoms, such as severe headaches, fatigue and diarrhoea. They will also be required to consult with health officials if they need, or want, to travel.

It's an over-reaction by the airport staff. If she did have a case of the Ebolas, then she could have infected many others on the plane. So why wasn't the entire flight put in quarantine?

The behavior of the airport staff and authorities seems to be one of two things; either to be overdramatic to make it look like they are doing something (which would have been too late) and/or to humiliate her.

If there has to be quarantine, then it should be done before she goes on the plane, and not 12 hours later after arriving in another country.

a reply to: stormcell

If there has to be quarantine, then it should be done before she goes on the plane, and not 12 hours later after arriving in another country.

Something like a naval hospital ship off the coast. Then once cleared, a nice trip home from a grateful people .

P

originally posted by: pheonix358

originally posted by: SubTruth
a reply to: infolurker

I think she should whining.........wha.......wha.....wha. She made a choice and now she should live with it. How's that for dignity and humanity. I am wondering how much help someone this stupid could really be over in Africa.

She goes to another country to help the sick and the needy, something you did not do.

And all you can do is sit in armchair judgement.

I will tell you this, she has more compassion that most.

I expect the US to react with professionalism, is that not what the CDC is about.

There real first test and they are acting like they are fresh from kindergarten.

P

HAHAHAHAHA MORE COMPASSION THAN MOST

You must be joking. Do you know this woman? How do you even know she wasnt in it for the ride and decided it wasnt what she expected and just came back? Because I'd dare take a gamble



How about this for compassion:
Maybe she should be happy she's not ending up like many Africans do every day. Maybe she should be happy SHE CAN STILL COME BACK FOR TREATMENT unlike them who either get help in time or can start bleeding from their ears WHILE THEY WAIT TO DIE




Armchair judgement JUST LIKE YOU, hypocrite.

I know one thing. i might not be over there helping, but if I were I sure as hell wouldnt WHINE LIKE A BITCH FOR HAVING TO SIT STILL FOR 7 hours after what I had just witnessed in AFRICA. Compassion my ass, everyone needs to know SHE has been there and is not being treated like a hero, PERIOD.

a reply to: NoNameNeeded

Mass Quarantine in the US: How Will It Work?

....Think ahead folks. God forbid Ebola comes to America. But if it does, and policy is set by fear, in fear, this is what will happen to YOU. Your children. Your family. Your friends.

a reply to: soficrow

Yes, if any of the posters on this thread were thrown into a tent with no explanations about how long they were going to be there, not given adequate food, and not allowed to have any of their personal belongings with them during this -- they'd be screaming mad about "the evil gubmint".

At the very least, these health care workers forced into quarantine should be told exactly what's going on and what their rights are. They should be placed in an apartment-type setting (not luxurious, but comfortable), with a fully-stocked kitchen, television, and any personal belongings the quarantined person wants brought to them. This place should be on some land, so they can walk out and get some fresh air. If they don't cook, food of their choice should be brought to them. On the tax-payers' dime? You betcha. It's the least we can do.

originally posted by: soficrow
a reply to: NoNameNeeded

Mass Quarantine in the US: How Will It Work?

....Think ahead folks. God forbid Ebola comes to America. But if it does, and policy is set by fear, in fear, this is what will happen to YOU. Your children. Your family. Your friends.

That is all? Not a single word in response??



The more articles I find, the more I am convinced that besides making a point, this woman is much more interested in getting her 15 minutes of fame





Oh and kayluv, dear, they are not doing this to random people, stop pretending like this could happen to any one of us.


The second paragraph, I assume this to be satire? A fully stocked kitchen, a television, why not a butler while we're at it!

Oh and they can have some personal items in there too, sure.
Personal belongings wrapped in cling foil? LOL, you are going to bring items in quarantine, that can then afterwards be taken home???

An ebola souvenir, if you will!?

Hilarious, I'm now convinced it was satire

a reply to: ~Lucidity

The nurse is a CDC employee, currently an “Epidemic Intelligence Services Fellow” whose responsibilities include:

applied epidemiology, biostatistics, public health surveillance, scientific writing, and working with the media, as well as emerging public health issues.

link

link 2

a reply to: ~Lucidity
Ding, ding, ding--we have a winner!
I have the greatest respect for health care workers, but this nurse baffles me. Through her own words, she sounds privileged and self-important. (Being a HCW isn't an exemption from having the true heart of a princess.) It's already been established that she knows "important people," specifically CNN's expert, Dr. Yasmine. Who else?
CNN jumped on the bandwagon...and now the ACLU.
Maya Angelou once said, "When someone shows you what they are, believe them the first time."
I believe.
www.brainyquote.com...

a reply to: MrLimpet

Hmmm I read DWB in at least two places. I will see if I can find it.

ETA:

Doctors Without Borders slams N.J.'s treatment of Ebola nurse

The charity Doctors Without Borders yesterday voiced concern and annoyance over the treatment of its nurse, nothing the quarantined volunteer was at University Hospital stuck in paper scrubs in an unheated tent.

The nurse, 33-year-old Kaci Hickox, hasn't received any indication of what is in store for her, and her organization hasn't been able to get much information on her behalf, said an official with Doctors Without Borders.

An unheated hospital? Okay a tent outside for assessment.

Chills are a symptom.

a reply to: kaylaluv

It was freaking brand newly implemented.

Stop the drama.

a reply to: kaylaluv
It would also be nice if we, the people, were "told exactly what's going on and what their rights are."