Nurses Union: 'There Were No Protocols' for Dallas Ebola Case

CNN’s Anderson Cooper reported that he received a statement from the National Nurses United that during the treatment of Dallas Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan, CDC guidelines “were constantly changing,” and “there were no protocols” on Tuesday’s “AC360” on CNN.

Cooper said that statement declared that “when Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan was here at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital ‘the guidelines were constantly changing,’ and ‘there were no protocols.’” He added that the vice president of National Nurses United reported that “the protective gear that nurses wore at first left their necks exposed.”  According to Cooper, the group claimed its information came from “nurses at the hospital.”

He also reported that “there are precious few facilities that are specially equipped to safely treat Ebola patients…there are just four of these centers in the United States” “if you’re thinking that these are hospitals with dozens or hundreds of beds each and that they can handle a real outbreak, well we’re learning something far different.”

CNN Special Investigations Unit Reporter Drew Griffin declared that there were only 19 beds total at these four facilities, but that because of logistical constraints at the facility in Omaha, the US really only has 11 beds.

Griffin added that hospitals were desperate for information on how to treat the virus, saying “hospitals across the country, they are scrambling now to figure out what to do, and these changing policies from the CDC aren’t helping…a lot of the hospitals aren’t sure they’re ready.”

He also reported on the CDC’s phone seminar for hospitals, stating “the CDC held this seminar today over the phone. A phone conference for hospitals and emergency workers who just wanted to learn from the experiences that we’ve already had, how to handle Ebola patient treatment, how to do that safely.”  Unfortunately, when Griffin tried to call in to the conference a recording told him that the teleconference “has momentarily reached capacity.”  He then said, “we tried a few more times. We never did get through, I’m telling you these hospitals are desperate for information.”

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