By: Bob McCarty
Bob McCarty Writes
Baylor University Medical Center at Dallas received its first possible Ebola patient Thursday night, a hospital spokesperson confirmed today.
Baylor spokesperson Craig Civale confirmed during a phone conversation at 8:21 a.m. Central, that a patient arrived at the hospital around 8:30 p.m. Central Thursday. After being brought into the facility through a private entrance and put into isolation, the patient was monitored for a few hours before being transferred to Texas Health Presbyterian Dallas.
Careful not to reveal anything about the patient’s identity, Civale emphasized the patient had only screened positive (i.e., reported risk factors and showed symptoms that could indicate an infection) for Ebola, but had not yet tested positive for the virus.
If further tests reveal an infection, this patient will become the fourth Dallas-area Ebola patient to date. The list of others includes Nina Pham, who was transferred Thursday to the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md., and Amber Vinson, who was transferred to Emory University Hospital in Atlanta two days ago. Both women are Texas Health Presbyterian Dallas nurses who had been involved in the care of Thomas Eric Duncan, the Liberia native who was the first person in the United States to die from the virus.
Baylor UMCD is one of three Dallas area hospitals to have set up. Parkland Memorial Hospital and Presbyterian Dallas are the other two, according to a Dallas News report ten days ago.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Stay tuned for updates if anything new develops.
See also: INSIDER: Ebola Fears Drive Patients From Dallas Hospital and Six Reasons to Panic.
