First US Ebola Patient Didn't Have to Die

The first and only patient to be diagnosed with Ebola in the United States, Thomas Eric Duncan, died Wednesday morning at a Dallas hospital.

One can only wonder if he would be alive today if he had not mistakenly been turned away when he first sought treatment. It was a colossal blunder that likely cost Duncan his life and perhaps the lives of others he infected after being sent home from the hospital.

Duncan was infected with Ebola in Liberia, then boarded a plane to the United States. Doctors tell us people with the Ebola virus are not contagious unless they are exhibiting symptoms, and that first symptom is usually a fever.

After that, the patient's health deteriorates rapidly.

We know that Duncan should never have even boarded that plane. Although he did not have a fever, he allegedly lied on the exit form by saying he had not had contact with someone with Ebola, when in fact, he reportedly carried a gravely ill woman with Ebola, who later died.

Nevertheless, days after arriving in Dallas, Duncan began experiencing his first symptoms of Ebola, primarily a fever. He went to the emergency room where he reportedly told the health officials there that he had recently been in Liberia. They sent him home.

That, of course, would have been the time to admit him, and begin treating him.

Instead Duncan left the hospital and became markedly worse in a short period of time, as is typical for this virus.

Three days later Duncan was taken by ambulance to the same hospital and was finally admitted, but by this time the virus had taken hold of his body and there was not much the doctors could do.

We have seen three other people treated for Ebola in American hospitals: Dr. Kent Brantley, Nancy Writebol and Dr. Rick Sacra. All three recovered from the virus and were released. Why, then, after being treated at an American hospital did Duncan die from Ebola?

The difference is time. The three survivors were treated at the first sign of symptoms. This is key. The presence of the virus grows over time, and leads to massive fluid loss through vomit and diarrhea, and later blood loss.

One of the primary treatments is the administration of I-V fluids and electrolytes to strengthen the patient's immune system so they can fight-off the virus, and also to prevent dehydration. There are other treatments such as experimental drugs and even blood transfusions from patients who have survived Ebola, but those are far less effective if the virus is in its later stages and has already taken hold of the patient, as was the case with Duncan.

Now the question is whether he infected someone in that three-day period of time after he was sent home from the hospital until he went back and was finally admitted. Health experts say if he did infect another person, that person would likely start showing symptoms right about now.

Currently health officials are monitoring nearly 50 people who came into contact with Duncan. Ten of them are quarantined because they are at very high risk of infection due to the close contact they had with Duncan. These are people who, for instance, lived with him and were more than likely exposed to his bodily fluids while he was symptomatic.

Most health officials say despite more than 3,000 deaths in Africa, Ebola, compared to other viruses, it's actually difficult to get because the virus itself is not very resilient.

We certainly hope and pray that is the case. We will certainly learn a lot about Ebola after the 21-day incubation period is over for the people who had contact with Duncan and we discover who, if anyone, caught it from him.