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Duncan, US hospital face Ebola lawsuits

Possible lawsuits are said to be hanging over critically ill first US Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan  and the Dallas, Texas hospital that sent him home after he first checked in for treatment. Duncan could face charges here in Liberia and the United States, while the Dallas, Texas hospital that sent him home could also face a long legal battle.

Authorities here announced last week that they would press charges against Duncan for allegedly lying on his airport screening questionnaire. While a day later, a US Dallas County District Attorney Craig Watkins said his office is looking into the possibility of filing charges against Duncan for carrying Ebola to the US.

The bid to prosecute Duncan here comes in the wake of a bill recently passed by the National Legislature to prosecute individuals who knowingly infect others with diseases such as HIV/Aids and Ebola. The new law according to local authorities here is intended to protect the general public against individuals who go around knowingly infecting others.

Former Justice Minister Christian Tah who address the media days before tendering in her resignation said besides Ebola patients travelling to Nigeria and the United States, there seems to be a continuous transmission of the virus among Liberians due to denial, despite messages widely being spread through the media, cautioning people to avoid making unprotected contacts with sick or dead persons.

There continues to be claims of relatives bathing their deceased family members without knowing the cause of deaths, and such people would not avoid public places until they are attacked by the virus.

In the US, authorities are said to be investigating whether Duncan knew he had been exposed to the Ebola virus before traveling to Dallas. If that’s the case then District Attorney Craig Watkins says the state crime of aggravated assault may come into play for exposing others to the Ebola virus.

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“We’re dealing with the issue that he may have knowingly exposed individuals in Dallas County to the ebola virus” Craig Watkins was quoted as saying. “We’ve prosecuted individuals, for knowingly exposing individuals to HIV – which is aggravated assault.”

However, reports say the Ebola lawsuits against the Dallas hospital could be a long hurdles. The Reuters news agency said Tuesday that Texas tort-reform measures have made it one of the hardest places in the United States to sue over medical errors, especially those that occurred in the emergency room, according to plaintiffs’ lawyers and legal experts.

“It’s one of the highest legal burdens of any state in the country,” said Joanne Doroshow, executive director of New York Law School’s Center for Justice and Democracy, who studies U.S. tort law. Although it appears no lawsuits have been filed in connection with the case, possible legal claims could be brought by Ebola patient Thomas Eric Duncan or his family, anyone he may have exposed to the disease, or hospital workers put at risk.

Duncan, now in critical condition, first visited Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital’s emergency room late at night on Sept. 25. Duncan told a nurse he had just returned from Liberia, where the disease is raging, but he was sent home with antibiotics. On Sunday, Sept. 28, he was admitted after his symptoms became worse, becoming the first patient to be diagnosed with Ebola in the United States.

Texas Governor Rick Perry on Monday said that there had been “mistakes” handling the Ebola diagnosis, the latest in a series of officials and health experts questioning the initial response.

The hospital on Friday said Duncan’s travel history was “documented and available to the full care team,” correcting its earlier statement that staff were not made aware of his recent travel to West Africa. Failure to properly diagnose a disease is a common basis for malpractice lawsuits, but each state has its own standards.

To bring a civil claim in Texas over an emergency-room error, including malpractice, plaintiffs have to show staff acted in a way that was “willfully and wantonly negligent,” meaning that the staff had to have consciously put Duncan or others at extreme risk by releasing him, rather just having made a mistake.

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