Nina Pham, one of the two nurses who contracted Ebola at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, will be moved to a National Institutes of Health facility in Maryland, hospital officials said Thursday.
Pham, a 26-year-old critical-care nurse, was diagnosed with Ebola on Sunday after treating Thomas Eric Duncan, a Liberian man who last month became the first person to be diagnosed with Ebola in the United States.
Pham and Amber Joy Vinson, the other nurse who contracted Ebola, were among 76 hospital workers who treated Duncan before his death.
Vinson, 29, was transferred to Emory University Hospital in Atlanta on Wednesday.
Pham, who is being treated in isolation at the Dallas hospital, could be flown to the Bethesda, Maryland, hospital, as early as Thursday evening.
The Atlanta and Bethesda facilities are two of four in the United States specially equipped to handle Ebola.
Pham released a statement showing her support for the staff at Texas Health Presbyterian:
I’m so thankful for the outpouring of love and support from friends and family, my coworkers and complete strangers. I feel very blessed, and have gained strength from their support. I appreciate everything that my coworkers have done to care for me at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas. I’m doing really well thanks to this team, which is the best in the world. I believe in my talented coworkers. I am #presbyproud.
According to WFAA-TV, Pham's family did not request the move, but they were told a "lack of staffing" necessitated it.
"We believe that transferring Nina to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) is the right decision," Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas said in a statement Thursday afternoon. "With many of the medical professionals who would normally staff the intensive care unit sidelined for continuous monitoring, it is in the best interest of the hospital employees, nurses, physicians and the community to give the hospital an opportunity to prepare for whatever comes next."
Pham, a Fort Worth, Texas, native and 2010 graduate of Texas Christian University, released a statement thanking well-wishers on Tuesday, saying she is "doing well." She was listed in good condition by the hospital on Wednesday.
On Thursday, Briana Aguirre, a Texas Health Presbyterian nurse who helped treat Pham, sharply criticized the facility for its handling of Duncan, saying staffers never discussed Ebola before his arrival.
“We never talked about Ebola and we probably should have,” Aguirre said on NBC's "Today" show on Thursday. "They gave us an optional seminar to go to. Just informational, not hands-on. It wasn’t even suggested we go. ... We were never told what to look for.”
When Duncan was diagnosed with Ebola on Sept. 30, Aguirre said there was confusion about how to handle the case. “It was just a little chaotic scene," she said. "Our infectious disease department was contacted to ask, 'What is our protocol?' And [the] answer was, 'We don’t know. We’re going to have to call you back.'"
On Tuesday, National Nurses United said several nurses at Texas Health Presbyterian complained of similar confusion.
"There was no advance preparedness on what to do with the patient, there was no protocol, there was no system," the group said in a statement.
Late Wednesday, a top official at Texas Health Presbyterian issued an apology for his facility’s “mistakes” in handling the highly contagious disease.
“Unfortunately, in our initial treatment of Mr. Duncan, despite our best intentions and a highly skilled medical team, we made mistakes,” Dr. Daniel Varga, chief clinical officer of the hospital’s parent chain Texas Health Resources, said in a statement. “We did not correctly diagnose his symptoms as those of Ebola. We are deeply sorry.”
Varga said the hospital followed all federal and state guidelines to protect staff and others from Duncan, who died Oct. 8 after 10 days in isolation.
“It’s clear there was an exposure somewhere, sometime,” his statement said. “We are poring over records and observations, and doing all we can to find the answers.”
Varga added that Texas Health Presbyterian had already instituted a number of fixes, including an Ebola “refresher course” for emergency department staffers.
"Throughout this situation, we have collaborated at every level — the hospital, CDC, Texas Department of State Health Services, Dallas County and the City of Dallas Mayor’s office," the hospital added. "Our collaboration will continue, and we will share what we have learned so that all health systems around the country are better prepared to meet this global health crisis." LINK
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