• Ebola Fighters 'Time's' 'Person of the Year'

    Just yesterday we were wondering if "Time" magazine would make sense out of its unusual short list of contenders for its 2014 Person of the Year, and thankfully its end game is rooted in logic. For a second there it looked like Vladimir Putin, with his ill-prepared Sochi Olympic Games and war with Ukraine actually had a chance at the title. Thankfully, "Time" announced this morning that the Ebola fighters have been named the 2014 Person of the Year. Since late August, the U.S. has panicked as some of our own stricken caregivers, such as Nancy Writebol and Dr. Kent Brantly in Liberia, have been transported back home to the States, where their hopes of survival are better. Nurses like Nina Pham and Amber Vinson were not properly trained to care for Ebola patients and ended up with the illness themselves. Adding insult to injury, the CDC went so far as to try to blame them for getting sick. The irony is that each caregiver has thought nothing of going back to work after their own recovery. When asked if they would care for another Ebola patient, the response has immediately been yes.

  • 'Time's' Short List for 'Person of the Year' Raising Eyebrows

    On Wednesday, Dec. 10, "Time" magazine will announce its 2014 Person of the Year, and after learning who landed on the short list of candidates, we are more than a little confused. Some of the names on the list are not too shocking. There is Tim Cook, who introduced a bunch of new Apple products this year and then decided to come out of the closet, making him the first openly gay CEO of a Fortune 500 company. There is Taylor Swift, who, as a top-selling artist, decided to pull her music from Spotify this past fall because she believes the streaming service is not compensating artists nearly enough. But some of the other contenders are a bit baffling. Like Vladimir Putin, the Russian president who guided his country through hosting the Sochi Olympics in February under subpar conditions. He has also been one of the ringleaders in the ongoing strife between Russia and eastern Ukraine. Then there is NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, who has spent the last six months living under a microscope because it seems the majority of even NFL fans believe he purposely set out to cover up several domestic violence cases within the league, including the now-infamous knockout punch by Ray Rice that was caught on surveillance tape and then shown to the world. The Ferguson protesters have also made the list, but wouldn't it have made more sense for the peaceful protesters in New York City's chokehold case to have made it instead? By pointing to Ferguson, sadly the first thing that comes to mind for many people is either the rioting and destruction of local businesses after Darren Wilson was not indicted, or else the video of Michael Brown's grieving and angry stepfather directing the crowd to burn things down.

  • American Health-Care Worker from West Africa Admitted to Atlanta's Emory Hospital with Ebola Symptoms

    Nearly three weeks after Dr. Martin Salia died at Nebraska Medical Center due to advanced Ebola symptoms, we are hearing that there may be another new case of the horrific virus once again on U.S. soil. It was confirmed by Atlanta's Emory University Hospital that at 5:45 a.m. this morning it admitted an American woman who may have been infected while performing recent duties as a health-care worker in West Africa. The woman has yet to be identified and no details have been given out about her just yet, other than the confirmation that she is at Emory, which is waiting for test results. This facility has successfully treated four recent Ebola patients, including Dr. Kent Brantly, Amber Vinson and Nancy Writebol with its special isolation unit and well-trained staff. While the Ebola virus has infected more than 17,000 in Africa just this year alone, the U.S. has, so far at least, managed to keep it from turning into an epidemic here as well. When the first cases were confirmed here, it seemed like everyone was expecting the absolute worse but instead the few cases that have developed have somehow stayed isolated occurrences.

  • Amber Vinson, Nurse Who Survived Ebola, Gets New Engagement Ring to Replace Contaminated One

    Amber Vinson has endured a tough few months. Back in late September, she was one of a team of nurses in Texas who took care of Thomas Eric Duncan, the first confirmed Ebola patient in the U.S. Vinson quickly became known as the second nurse from the hospital to become infected with the virus, in part because the staff had not been properly trained to care for Ebola patients. She also was hit with tons of backlash after she had been cleared to fly home to Cleveland to plan her wedding, but then the CDC tried to say she should never have been on a plane. It was not until recently that Vinson was able to give a real interview, telling her side after weeks of negativity being thrown at her from complete strangers. Basically, what was supposed to be a happy time in her life has been turned upside down. As it turns out, after her apartment was turned upside down by the CDC during decontamination, even her engagement ring from fiance Derrek Markray had been destroyed. "I took off all my jewelry, thinking that my jewelry would be safer at home than in the hospital, and when the decontamination team came in, everything that was on the surface was swiped into a bin for incineration. My jewelry box being on my nightstand was one of those things that got destroyed," explained Vinson in a recent interview. What came next for the nurse was pretty amazing, as Zales reached out to her after hearing that her ring had been destroyed and offered her a replacement for free.

  • Dr. Martin Salia is 'Extremely Critical' While Being Treated in Nebraska for Ebola Virus

    The United States was Ebola-free for a few short days before the news broke that Dr. Martin Salia was being flown to Nebraska from Sierra Leone. As it turns out, Salia is a citizen of Sierra Leone but lives in Maryland, was working as a general surgeon at Kissy United Methodist Hospital in the country's capital. Kissy is not an Ebola treatment unit but Salia has also apparently worked in at least three other facilities that are. It's still unclear when or how Salia came into contact with the deadly virus, but five other doctors in Sierra Leone have not only contracted the disease, but also were killed by it.

  • 18K Nurses in California to Strike Over Lack of Ebola Preparedness Training

    Ever since two Texas nurses tested positive for the Ebola virus after caring for Thomas Eric Duncan, our attention has been sharply focused on making sure that health care providers have the necessary training to safely treat future patients. Several facilities across the country have gone to great lengths in an attempt to force administrators to make sure the proper training is offered and, in some cases, nurses who feel unprepared have voted to strike. In northern California, there are 18,000 nurses in 21 hospitals and 65 clinics owned by Kaiser Permanente who are planning a two-day strike beginning Tuesday, Nov. 11. According to Charles Idelson, a spokesman for National Nurses United, the union's contract with nonprofit Kaiser expired in August and was extended until October.

  • Amber Vinson, 2nd Dallas Nurse Stricken with Ebola, Slams CDC's Criticism

    Amber Vinson was the second nurse who cared for Thomas Eric Duncan at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital to become infected with the Ebola virus. She raised eyebrows for taking a flight from Dallas to Ohio, and then back again a few days later while supposedly having a low-grade fever. Vinson was finally declared Ebola-free and released from the hospital last week, and while she asked for her privacy, I think many expected to hear from her because the CDC momentarily let her be its fall girl. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had said Vinson should never have flown and that it would have been against its guidelines. But it neglected to mention how nervous the whole situation had actually made her because the nurses who cared for Duncan were never trained until the moment they had to suit up to actively care for him. Vinson told Matt Lauer in an interview this morning on "Today": "The first time that I put on the protective equipment, I was heading in to take care of the patient. We didn't have excessive training where we could don and doff, put on and take off the protective equipment, till we got a level of being comfortable with it. I didn't have that, and I think that's very important for hospitals across the nation, big and small. Once Nina came down with it, my contact at the health department called me and gave me a list of things to look out for, symptoms to look out for and numbers to call if I showed any symptoms. I never had a number to call the CDC directly. I would always call my contact at the health department. And then when I was in Ohio, and I was scheduled to leave, because I was so afraid of what could potentially happen, I did ask them, 'Is there anything that you guys can do to send for me? Do I need to leave earlier?' Because you know, I was worried." Lauer quickly reminded her of how the CDC allowed her to be painted as careless and foolish ,and it was obviously still a sore spot for Vinson, as she explained: "It made me feel terrible, because that's not me. I'm not careless. I'm not reckless. I'm an ICU nurse. I embrace protocol, guidelines and structure. Because in my day-to-day nursing, it is a matter of life and death. And I respect that fact. I would never go outside of guidelines or boundaries or something directly from the CDC telling me that I can't go, I can't fly."

  • Amber Vinson Released from Hospital after Being Declared Ebola-Free, Retains Attorney

    Today is no doubt one of the happiest of Amber Vinson's life, as she was discharged from Emory Hospital in Atlanta earlier today after being declared healthy. Vinson was the second Texas nurse infected with the Ebola virus after caring for Thomas Eric Duncan, who died from the illness Oct. 9. She eventually was transferred out of Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in favor of Atlanta's Emory facility, one that had previously treated Ebola patients, and it is the excellent care she received there that eventually nursed her back to health.

  • Dallas Hospital Made Mistakes in Treating Ebola Patients for Days Before CDC Changed Guidelines

    Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas may be one of the best facilities in the country, but when it comes to treating Ebola patients, it now admits it dropped the ball, with deadly consequences. The facility's chief clinical officer Daniel Varga admitted in a Capitol Hill hearing that some of the precautions taken by hospital staff, such as wearing more layers of gear than the CDC, directed actually put the staff at risk.

  • Experts Say a Travel Ban Won't Stop Ebola from Spreading

    It seems like the CDC is rewriting its protocol and rules regarding the Ebola virus on a daily basis. In the last week, we have learned that a hospital praised for its skilled care was not given the proper tools to treat those infected with Ebola and travel restrictions seem to change constantly. Even nurses such as Amber Vinson, who was confirmed to have touched base with the CDC before hopping a plane from Dallas to Ohio and back again, was misdirected in proper procedures. All of the conflicting ideas and confusion has caused many to think a travel ban might be the obvious way to go, but expert sources disagree, saying a ban will not stop Ebola from spreading.
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