Comments on: TB Patient: "I'm Very Sorry"

Atlanta Attorney With Dangerous Strain Of Tuberculosis Says CDC "Abandoned" Him In Europe

[rushlimpdrug]

So now he blames the poor in Vietnam for all his problems.
Speaker is an incredible idiot.
Are there more like him in Atlanta?
Anyone?
Fess up now boys.

[slim1h2o]

Also Gottotellya,

I don't know how you or anybody can defend this peice of c.r.a.p.

And call it being brave. Bravery is going to doc. to doc. to doc. and being told to go home cause there was nothing they could do for me

Now thats bravery.

[slim1h2o]

Would you like tobe infected with some disease?

Didn't think so, I know it ain't fun

[slim1h2o]

Hey gottotellya, I understand, he was diagnosed in Atlanta, then he left, for eruope case closed

[gottotellya]

slim1h2o you don't understand the situation at all. He was in a foriegn country helping the poor and sick. The poor and sick he was helping caused him to catch a disease. When he went to get help in this foriegn country all the US officials told him is that you are stuck here until you get better. Having no cure for this rare disease he acted out of despiration to fly to Denver where I live to the National Jewish Center that has the best respitory specialists in the world to get get cured of this disease. Would you have stayed and just obeyed orders? I doubt it you would do whatever it took to save your life which is what he did. This was an act of bravery and survival not carelessness.

[slim1h2o]

BTW, I wished I had videotaped my Doctors visits!

[retmilspouse]

I still have not read in any of the articles the reason behind making a video of the meeting he had with health officials before his trip. I have worked in the health care field and have been involved with several contagious situations that had to be dealt with on various levels. And at no time did I ever see patients video taping or audio recording the meetings with doctors or any health officials. Can someone please answer that for me? Also is it true that you cannot be put in quarantine or isolation until after you break the healthcare official recommendations and not before?

[oneladymom]

toldyouso21, I just wanted to let you know I think your auesome and your comments were valued.

[likeitis5050]

david_271 what the hell comment is that...


I don't know what comment you are talking about. You referenced a bunch of stuff I didn't say. My stand is...regardless how he got it, or what he was told...by his own admission he wanted to get home for treatment as this was his 'best chance for a cure...he didn't want to die in Europe'...

He may have been in a panic or acting in survival mode...it doesn't change the fact that he acted without consideration for anyone else. I don't care what the lastest facts are or how the story continues to unravel. He is sorry he got caught and that people are angry with him. Had he really been concerned for the safety of others he would have gone through all the proper channels. I understand he was scared, but he still put aside any concern for anyone but himself and took the risk that nothing would come of it. Wrong. Whether they find out now it was all for nothing, it doesn't change the fact that he lacked integrity and moral conviction...that was my comment. Read threads entirely before you go on the attack.

[anditalian]

Mr Speaker said he feared being treated in an Italian hospital.
Of course I'm not here to judge his opinions, nor to criticize.
However, I'd like to point out that, according to World Health Organization, Italy's health care system is ranked 2nd best in the world, while the U.S. are placed 37th.

[tbweb]

Apology accepted, now go bear hug GW and aplogize in person! :)

[cricketmk3]

I can't get over the fact that he was marrying someone knowing he has this disease and planned to honeymoon with her and celebrate with members of their families and friends. Surely his future bride knew of his disease...both of them are either extremely selfish or in complete denial. Sounds like they are a good match.

Why bother putting him on a no-fly list if it's only going to be ignored?

[samthetvcat]

i don't buy his apology....
Posted by sacriffy at 02:21 AM : Jun 02, 2007

Yes, it's the same type of rationalizations we always hear from GWB and his cronies - got an answer for every law overlooked and every person stepped over no matter how outlandish, and is complete with a blame-shift of responsibility onto everybody else. And just like with GWB I guess there are always going to be like that 24% who'll overlook just about anything because standards are relative I guess . . .

I do feel bad for him that he got stuck with this terrible strain of TB, especially since he apparently may have got it doing charity work in Asia, and that he is going to have to be quarantined. I do NOT feel sorry for him for gaining national notoriety and public scorn because of his CHOICE not to give others time to come up with an alternative to a commercial flight home.

PS toldyouso21 - really enjoyed your awesome comments today! :)

[rudy654-2009]

"I find reading the posts, is if nothing else, entertaining. It is interesting to see how other people's brains work or in some cases don't work."

Quite the contrary. It isn't at all entertaining to read the hysterics being promoted here and mob-like mentality that one would like to assume doesn't exist anymore. But of course it actually does. That more than anything tells me how brains like yours don't work, because people losing their heads over such things can be far more dangerous than any TB strain.

[sacriffy]

i don't buy his apology....everyone has said that they have asked him not to leave until they have info on how bad he is, i'm a survivor of t.b. myself and i followed what the health dept. asked me to do, when they asked him to stay home, he CHOSE to go to Europe and chose to come back.....his new wife defends him by saying they had no clue how bad he was................there was a reason.... but if u ignore the warnings, everyone pays the price...why should we feel sorry for him, if he was warned to put off his wedding, to make others safe, and didn't.....i have no sympathy....

mike brown

[mccerceo]

http://www.webmd.com/news/20070601/tuberculosis-17-questions-and-answers?src=RSS_PUBLIC

[toldyouso21]

According to a CDC spokesperson, literally HUNDREDS of people have been dispatched to track down those who were on the transatlantic flights. In some cases, that may mean leaving Europe and continuing on to other destinations. Hundreds. In addition, the person did admit that though they are concentrating on the few seats around Andrew, that theoretically, anyone and everyone on the plane was/is at risk.They will have to be tested not once or twice, but perhaps even for years.

Again, the problem is not much is known about this particular strain--not how easily it is transmitted, whether it can lay dormant or be asymptomatic, how fast it grows or proliferates. To add to the confusion, the instance in S Africa where 53 out of 54 infected died, the average time between onset of symptoms and death was 16 days. Most died before the test results came back. In addition, at least 4 of the nurses succumbed. At least 44 of the people who died were HIV positive (in the same ward)

I think some people have this idea that a person would have to be coughed on, or exchange fluids, they do not understand the nature of air borne pathogens and how easily they are transported on currents of air---be they fans, air cond. or the simple breeze from a window.

[toldyouso21]

The CDC's job is not to placate, cater to or humor a single individual, for them the stakes are measured in populations not in hurt feelings, ruined vacations or even the life of one man. After dealing with raging epidemics for decades, they are professional enough and dispassionate enough to value the Million over the 1.They have to be--lest the Million as well as the 1 die due to the wrong focus. this is hard for some people to understand --especially the idealists and empathizers that see the individual human aspect of this situation. What must be constantly remembered is not just what may occur as a result of Andrew's action, but what could and perhaps next time, will, if this is not corrected. Part of the correction is to dissuade potential new Andrews from disregarding orders, to understand that no untreated communicable disease should comingle with the public, and that once a person is informed of their condition, they are culpable for that condition.

Consider that Andrew may not be that contagious--but he could not have known that, nor could any of his drs. The etiology of this particular strain is so rare, that no one can say how quickly it proliferates or even how long it stays viable as an airborne pathogen.

[toldyouso21]

Anyway, it would be like Andy griffith and Barney letting Ernest T Bass run around town throwing rocks at people and just letting him spend the night in jail or ignoring him and the rules suddenly change when an out of town FBI man is in charge. Then the rock thrower is not going to be humored, but charged with vandalism and placed in jail--what a shock to Ernest T.

Andrew probably felt they were all one and the same and that even though he was ordered, he could work around them like he had the Fulton HD. He was mistaken. At the point that they took in and gave orders, he no longer had the discretion of his own judgement, any action taken after advised of his infectious state and the strain, can be used against him should a case be made in court. Once he was warned, knew and was given orders to stay put--he was supposed to comply. The reason for this is simple: diseases are best controlled when patients obey the drs. If everyone ignored the drs, we would all be dead or significantly impacted within a few centuries. Lay people seldom believe or understand the ramifications of their acts as they pertain to illness and that is no more apparent than it was in their case.

[toldyouso21]

The CDC did not act sooner because the results were not in before Andrew left. I do know that drs and hospitals must report all communicable disease cases to the CDC for tracking and in the case of TB (and other illnesses) they must provide a sample to be tested so that the strain can be identified. That strain is then challenged against various antibiotics and from that, the patient is given the best options for treatment. Sometimes treatment is started, then stopped as the antibiotics have no effect--I don't know what happened in this case or how Andrew knew before he left that he had a drug resistant strain. there are lots of drug resistant strains, but if one group does not work then another antibiotic group will. In this case nothing worked--this kind of challenge takes about 8 weeks of testing and culturing.

At some point when it was discovered the patient had XDR-TB the CDC stepped in. At that point it was no longer in the hands of the Fulton Health dept or those drs, they had to defer to the National experts in the field of TB, containment and epidemiology. So in essence, the orders or advice by the fulton people was superceded by a higher authority. It would be like the local cops being on a case until the CIA or FBI stepped in. Whereas the Fulton HD could not demand he stay put, the CDC could and did. It was this failure which netted him a guarded escort and why he is in quarantine.