Thomas Eric Duncan, the patient who was being treated for Ebola in an isolation unit at a Texas hospital, has died, officials said today.
"It is with profound sadness and heartfelt disappointment that we must
inform you of the death of Thomas Eric Duncan this morning at 7:51
a.m.," the hospital said in a statement.
"Mr. Duncan succumbed to an insidious disease, Ebola. He fought
courageously in this battle. Our professionals, the doctors and nurses
in the unit, as well as the entire Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital
Dallas community, are also grieving his passing," the statement said.
Duncan, a Liberian
man who had traveled to Texas to visit family, was the first person to
be diagnosed with the disease while in the U.S. and became the first
person to die of the disease in the U.S.
Duncan's daughter, Youngor Jallah, was distraught after learning of her father's death.
“I am not okay and I don’t know what to do,” she told ABC News through tears.
Duncan was admitted to the Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas
on Sept. 28. He initially went to the hospital's emergency room with
symptoms on Sept. 26. He returned in an ambulance two days later and had
been in an isolation unit since then.
On Saturday Duncan’s condition was downgraded from serious to critical,
as doctors worked to save his life. Hospital officials confirmed Tuesday
he was on a respirator and receiving kidney dialysis.
Duncan was the first person to be given the experimental drug brincidofovir.
Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings released a statement reassuring the public
that health teams had taken steps to stop the spread of the Ebola virus
in Dallas.
“We will stop the Ebola virus in its tracts from spreading into our
community," said Rawlings. “I want to reinforce to the public, that this
was an isolated incident of the Ebola virus; contracted by the
individual while residing in another country.”
Judge Clay Jenkins, who helped move Duncan’s relatives from a cramped
apartment to a donated house, said in a statement his “thoughts are with
the family and friends."
“We are also thinking of the dedicated hospital staff who assisted Mr.
Duncan daily while he fought this terrible disease,” wrote Jenkins.
Four of Duncan’s relatives including a woman and three males are still
in quarantine in a home in Dallas. Approximately 50 people were still
being monitored for signs of Ebola symptoms, according to the U.S.
Centers for Disease Control.
Four health workers were brought back from West Africa where they
contracted the disease and were treated and released. A fifth person,
cameraman Ashoka Mukpo, is being treated at a Nebraska facility.
