The Pet Tree House - Where Pets Are Family Too : Nina Pham The Pet Tree House - Where Pets Are Family Too : Nina Pham
Showing posts with label Nina Pham. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nina Pham. Show all posts

Monday, October 13, 2014

Texas Nurse Nina Pham Receives a Blood Transfusion from Survivor Dr. Kent Brantly


The Texan nurse diagnosed with Ebola has received a blood transfusion from survivor Dr. Kent Brantly.

It is the third time Dr. Brantly has donated blood to an Ebola victim after medics discovered he had the same blood type as previous patient Dr. Nick Sacra and NBC cameraman Ashoka Mukpo, who is still being treated.

Incredibly, nurse Nina Pham, 26, has also matched with Dr. Brantly and on Monday received a transfusion of his blood in a move that doctors believe could save her life. 

Miss Pham has been in quarantine since Friday after catching the disease from 'patient zero' Thomas Eric Duncan - the man who brought the deadly virus to America. 

About 70 staff members at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital were involved in the care of Mr. Duncan after he was hospitalized, including the 26-year-old.

Brantly is believed to have traveled to Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, where Pham worked, to make the donation on Sunday night.

Miss Pham's condition was described as 'clinically stable' on Tuesday morning. She is believed to be in good spirits and had spoken to her mother via Skype. 

A second person who came in contact with the nurse is being monitored for Ebola symptoms in an isolation unit at Texas Presbyterian. He is reportedly Miss Pham's boyfriend according to Dallas News. 

The individual works at Alcon in Fort Worth, according to a staff email seen by CBS. 

Those who have survived Ebola have antibodies in their blood which can help new sufferers beat the disease.

Dr. Kent Brantly was flown back from Liberia to the U.S. after contracting Ebola during his missionary work for Samaritan's Purse.

He survived after receiving a dose of the experimental serum Z-Mapp and round-the-clock care at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia. 

On September 10, Dr. Brantly donated blood to a fellow doctor, Dr. Rick Sacra, who also contracted Ebola during his work in West Africa and survived the disease.

Last Tuesday, he was on a road trip from Indiana to Texas when he received a call from Ashoka Mukpo's medical center in Nebraska telling him his blood type matched Mukpo’s. 

He also offered his blood to Thomas Eric Duncan but their blood types didn't match. 

Within minutes, he stopped off at the Community Blood Center in Kansas City, Missouri, and his donation was flown to Omaha.

Pham was diagnosed after admitting herself to hospital on Friday when her temperature spiked – one of the first symptoms of the deadly virus. 

A blood test confirmed she had the disease and she is now being treated in an isolation ward. 

The Emergency Room where she was admitted was cleared and decontaminated.

Nina Pham's uncle confirmed that she is the nurse who has contracted Ebola while treating patient zero Thomas Eric Duncan.

Jason Nguyen told MailOnline that "Nina has contracted Ebola, she is my niece. Her mother called me on Saturday and told me; 'Nina has caught Ebola."

"My sister is very upset, we all are. She said she was going up to the hospital in Dallas and I haven't heard from her since. I've tried to call but I can't get through. It's very shocking. I don't know any of the details, only what I hear on the news. It's frightening."

"Nina is very hard working. She is always up at the hospital in Dallas", he said.

HazChem teams spent the weekend fumigating her apartment in Dallas while health officials have ordered an investigation into how she contracted the disease.

Her beloved King Charles Spaniel Bentley will not be destroyed and is being quarantined, Dallas mayor Mike Rawlings has assured.

Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Protection (CDC) Dr. Thomas Frieden has blamed a 'breach in protocol' of infection control lead Miss Pham to catch Ebola.

Mr. Duncan arrived in Texas from Liberia on September 20. He began showing symptoms of Ebola three days after his arrival and was admitted to Texas Presbyterian Hospital on Sunday 28. He died on Wednesday October 8. 

Presbyterian's chief clinical officer, Dr. Dan Varga, said all staff had followed CDC recommended precautions – 'gown, glove, mask and shield' – while treating Mr. Duncan.
And on Monday the CDC said that a critical moment may have come when Miss Pham took off her equipment. 

Ebola victims suffer chronic diarrhea and bleeding. But blood and feces from an Ebola patient are considered the most infectious bodily fluids.

Mr. Duncan also underwent two surgical procedures in a bid to keep him alive but which are particularly high-risk for transmitting the virus – kidney dialysis and incubation to help him to breathe – due to the spread of blood and saliva.

Nurses' leader Bonnie Castillo, has criticized the CDC for blaming the nurse for the spread of the disease.

Ms. Castillo, of the National Nurses United, said, "You don't scapegoat and blame when you have a disease outbreak. We have a system failure. That is what we have to correct."

In response to the criticism, Frieden clarified his comments to say that he did not mean it was an error on Miss Pham's part that led to the 'breach of protocol.'

The CDC said on Monday it has launched a wholesale review of the procedures and equipment used by healthcare workers. 

Dr. Frieden added that the case 'substantially' changes how medical staff approach the control of the virus, adding that: 'We have to rethink how we address Ebola control, because even a single infection is unacceptable.' 

Friends and well-wishers have paid tribute to Miss Pham and praised her as a big-hearted, compassionate nurse dedicated to caring for other.

Raised in a Vietnamese family in Fort Worth, she graduated from Texas Christian University in 2010 with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing.

She obtained her nursing license in August 2010 and recently qualified as a critical care nurse.

Hung Le, who is president and counselor at Our Lady of Fatima, said parishioners are uniting in prayer for Miss Pham.

He said, "our most important concern as a church is to help the family as they are coping with this. As a parish, we are praying for them."

"People are more worried for the family than for themselves, but some have questions because they don’t really understand what it is or how it is transmitted."

The World Health Organization on Monday called the Ebola outbreak "the most severe, acute health emergency seen in modern times."

It added that economic disruption can be curbed if people are educated so they don't make any irrational moves to dodge infection.

WHO Director-General Margaret Chan, citing World Bank figures, said 90 per cent of economic costs of any outbreak "come from irrational and disorganized efforts of the public to avoid infection."

"We are seeing, right now, how this virus can disrupt economies and societies around the world," and added "that adequately educating the public was a 'good defense strategy' and would allow governments to prevent economic disruptions."

Ebola screening of passengers arriving from three West African countries began at New York's JFK airport on Saturday.

Medical teams equipped with temperature guns and questionnaires are monitoring arrivals from Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone – countries at the centre of the Ebola outbreak.

Screening at Newark Liberty, Washington Dulles, Chicago O’Hare and Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta will begin later this week. 






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