EBOLA HOSPITAL REFUSING TO RELEASE DUNCAN MEDICAL RECORD TO FAMILY ON CONSENT FORMS?

[Songbird7777777]

Granny Sue gives updated news articles on her You Tube channel on a regular basis.

One of the articles discussed and posted was that the sister of Duncan is being denied access to the medical files.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZyEE6Q0Kv1w

Published on Oct 22, 2014


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Ebola victim's sister says Dallas hospital denied request

Family of deceased Ebola patient says hospital changed designee, withholding medical records


Posted TODAY, 6:29 AM

Updated TODAY, 6:33 AM



FORT WORTH, Texas - The family of the first Ebola victim to die in the United States says the hospital that cared for him has refused for weeks to release lab results showing the effects of an experimental drug treatment, fanning their suspicions that the facility mishandled the case.



They believe that information is being withheld, along with additional medical records, by Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas, where Thomas Eric Duncan died Oct. 8. He arrived in Dallas from Liberia, one of the hardest-hit nations in the latest Ebola outbreak, on Sept. 20.



The hospital released more than 1,450 pages of medical records to Duncan's sister, Mai Wureh, the day he died. A registered nurse, Wureh says she began asking about Duncan's Ebola viral load shortly after he received the first dose of brincidofovir on Oct. 4. After he died, she sought the information through numerous phone calls to the hospital's medical records division.



According to medical records initially provided to the family, Dr. Gary Weinstein noted two days before Duncan's death that "consents relatives" were Wureh and her son, Josephus Weeks.



Weinstein's notes also show that because Duncan was unable to make his own clinical decisions, Duncan's family designated Wureh as the "primary decision maker." Multiple family members, including the younger Duncan, were in agreement that Wureh would be the primary decision maker, Weinstein wrote.



Throughout the records, which the family shared with The Associated Press, the hospital refers to Wureh and Weeks as hospital contacts and decision makers. The first page of Duncan's medical record is a letter on Texas Health Presbyterian stationery addressed to Wureh.



The letter advises that "additional information may be added to the record."



A special code was included in the records, which was supposed to provide the family with access to Duncan's electronic records, but the code did not work, Wureh said.



"I called for a new code and was told that they could no longer release information to me," she said.



She said she was later told by a patient liaison that the hospital could release further information only to Duncan's 19-year-old son, Karsiah Eric Duncan.



Texas Health Presbyterian spokesman Wendell Watson told The Associated Press late Tuesday that the hospital "will be reaching out and providing the requested information" to Wureh.



Joseph Larsen, a Houston attorney experienced in working with medical records, said the hospital cannot change a patient's designee, even after a patient has died.



"That's absolutely not within the power of the hospital to change that," Larsen said.

Weeks says his mother requested lab work and other information during a visit to Dallas to see Duncan, but that the hospital has not released everything on his uncle's treatment and death.



"None of the procedures were discussed with the family," Weeks said.



His request for details of Duncan's cremation was also declined.



Karsiah Duncan signed documents at the hospital regarding the cremation, according to Troh's pastor, George Mason of Wilshire Baptist Church in Dallas, but has not yet taken possession of the ashes. Duncan has not returned calls seeking comment.



Copyright 2014 by Tje Associated Press - All rights reserved.


© 2014. KSAT.com is published by Graham Media Group, a division of Graham Holdings.



http://www.ksat.com/content/pns/ksat/news/2014/10/22/ebola-victim-s-sister-says-dallas-hospital-denied-request-.html

 

[pauldingbabe]

I read about this last night on Drudge. The comments under the article were very interesting.

 

[vessie]

I wonder if they really cremated him?

I can see them keeping the body and then finding enough ash to look like he's in the urn.

That way the can shut the family up and use the body for research. V

 

[Countrymouse]

She said she was later told by a patient liaison that the hospital could release further information only to Duncan's 19-year-old son, Karsiah Eric Duncan.



Karsiah Duncan signed documents at the hospital regarding the cremation, according to Troh's pastor, George Mason of Wilshire Baptist Church in Dallas, but has not yet taken possession of the ashes. Duncan has not returned calls seeking comment.

Well, how very interesting.

Only his son Karsiah can gain access to any further "information" about Duncan---

but nobody can seem to find him.


And Karsiah has ....

neither picked up his father's ashes

nor

returned phone calls...


well, I imagine so---


kinda hard to do that when you're dead...


(doesn't this just wrap everything up in a nice, neat package for the hospital and for the CDC?)

 

[Straycat]

Medical records employee here. Release of Information can be a bit dicey legally. There are very strict laws about who can have access to medical records and when, with severe penalties for giving out records to the wrong person. From what I can find online, Texas law is still unclear about exactly who can access a deceased patient's records - whether they have to be a court-appointed representative or just closest next-of-kin. If I were working in that department, I'd be damned sure to run everything through the hospital's attorneys before giving anything out. It can get touchy enough in regular cases and this was anything but regular!

In Montana, if there is no official representative of the deceased person's estate, records can be accessed by the following ONLY in the order listed:
1. A surviving spouse.
2. A parent.
3. An adult child.
4. An adult sibling.
5. Other person authorized by law.

In other words, if there's no official representative of the estate or a spouse and there is an adult child and an adult sibling, the request HAS to come from the adult child. And they would need to provide documentation proving they are who they say they are.

I'm also quite sure that there's a lot of unofficial scrambling to cover their asses going on right now. They might be able to delay a short time while the question of who legally represents Duncan is sorted out, but they'll have to provide the records by law before long. They're trying to use "patient privacy" to delay, but it's a double-edged sword because those laws also require records to be released when requested by the appropriate party. Once a legal representative is definitively determined, they can't deny them the records.

 

[Countrymouse]

In other words, if there's no official representative of the estate or a spouse and there is an adult child and an adult sibling, the request HAS to come from the adult child. And they would need to provide documentation proving they are who they say they are.

Straycat---a question---

the article states (and it's very long--you might have missed it?) that the sister signed forms with the hospital, designating her as her brother's representative.

And she WAS treated as his representative---up to and until a certain point.

Then--all of a sudden--she was cut off, without explanation.

Next thing she knew, the hospital is trying to say the son is his legal representative.

Which presents a bit of problem, since the son was in QUARANTINE, and due to that HE did NOT sign any papers, I assume---but we KNOW (per her lawyer) that the sister DID.

So--as her lawyer said---the hospital is trying to go "behind" the sister's back, AFTER THE FACT, and CHANGE the legal representative, AFTER THE PATIENTS' death (this is per the minister who said it was Karsiah who signed for the cremation---but of course no one has seen or heard from Karsiah so all we have is the minister's word from what he has been told, and the hospital's word, on this.) But--again---it was AFTER Duncan's DEATH, and AFTER the hospital already had had a signed form with the SISTER as her brother's legal adult representative.

The lawyer above says the hospital has "no authority" to do that---to arbitrarily CHANGE the adult rep--especially after the death of the patient.

Is that true, per your knowledge?

 

[msswv123]

I thought the medical records were given to AP news by the family....

Oct 11, 11:09 AM EDT

EBOLA PATIENT DISPLAYED SYMPTOMS AT FIRST ER VISIT
BY EMILY SCHMALL, HOLBROOK MOHR AND NOMAAN MERCHANT
ASSOCIATED PRESS

DALLAS (AP) -- The man said he'd recently traveled from West Africa, was in severe pain - rating it an eight on a scale of 10 - and had a fever that spiked to 103 degrees, enough to be flagged with an exclamation point in the hospital's record-keeping system.

Thomas Eric Duncan, displaying symptoms that could indicate Ebola, underwent a battery of tests during his initial visit to the Dallas emergency room before eventually being sent home with a prescription for antibiotics, his medical records show.

The Liberian man would become the only person to die from the disease in the U.S.

Duncan's family provided his medical records to The Associated Press - more than 1,400 pages in all. They chronicle his time in the ER, his urgent return to the hospital two days later and his steep decline as his organs began to fail.

In a statement issued Friday, Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital said it had made procedural changes and continues to "review and evaluate" the decisions surrounding Duncan's care.

Duncan carried the deadly virus with him from his home in Liberia, though he showed no symptoms when he left for the United States. He arrived in Dallas on Sept. 20 and fell ill several days later.

When he first showed up at the hospital, the man reported severe pain. Doctors gave him CT scans to rule out appendicitis, stroke and numerous other serious ailments. Ultimately, he was prescribed antibiotics and told to take Tylenol, then returned to the apartment where he was staying with a Dallas woman and three other people.

"I have given patient instructions regarding their diagnosis, expectations for the next couple of days, and specific return precautions," an emergency room physician wrote. "The condition of the patient at this time is stable."

After Duncan's condition worsened, someone in the apartment called 911, and paramedics took him back to the hospital on Sept. 28. That's when he was admitted and swiftly put in isolation.

Duncan died Wednesday, almost two weeks after he first sought help. He was 45, according to the records. Relatives said he was 42. The discrepancy could not be immediately resolved.

Josephus Weeks, Duncan's nephew, said his uncle's care was "either incompetence or negligence."

Either way "there is a problem, and we need to find the answer to it," he said, adding that it was "conspicuous" that all the white Ebola patients in the U.S. survived "and the one black man died."

Only a fraction of the documents are related to the first visit. Most are related to Duncan's care after he was admitted to the hospital.

Dr. Amesh Adalja, an infectious-disease specialist at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center who reviewed some of the records, said the care after Duncan's second ER visit was "impeccable." Physicians immediately signaled concern about Ebola and "spared no measure to try to keep him alive."

The documents also show that a nurse recorded early in Duncan's first hospital visit that he recently came to the U.S. from Africa, though he denied having been in contact with anyone sick. There was no indication in the paperwork that he was asked any follow-up questions about his travels.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had alerted hospitals nationwide to take a travel history for patients with Ebola-like symptoms.

The hospital said it had made changes to its intake process and other practices "to better screen for all critical indicators" of Ebola.

Doctors who evaluated Duncan did not respond to messages left at their offices by the AP.

A spokeswoman for the Texas Department of State Health Services said the agency was considering investigating the hospital for compliance with state health and safety laws.

The hospital has repeatedly changed its account of what the medical team knew when it released Duncan from the emergency room early on Sept. 26.

A few days later, on Sept. 30, it initially said Duncan did not tell the staff he had been in Africa. On Oct. 1, it said Duncan's nurse had been aware of the Africa connection but did not share that information with the rest of the medical team.

The next day, the hospital blamed a flaw in its electronic health-records systems for not making Duncan's travel history directly accessible to his doctor.

A day later, on Oct. 3, the hospital issued a statement saying Duncan's travel history had been available to all hospital workers, including doctors, who treated him during his initial visit.

Duncan's travel history was listed in a nursing notice but not in the physician's note, Adalja said.

The patient's 103-degree fever might warrant "a little more investigation," Adalja said. A chart showed Duncan did not arrive with a fever but left with one.

After it became clear that Duncan was suffering from Ebola, another option would have been to give him a transfusion from an Ebola survivor in the hopes that antibodies in the blood could help him fight the disease.

But Duncan did not receive a transfusion because the blood types did not match, the hospital said.

Dr. Kent Brantly, the first American flown back to the U.S. for treatment of Ebola, confirmed that account, saying he spoke with a doctor caring for Duncan and was willing to donate blood. But their blood types were incompatible, he said Friday in an interview with Abilene Christian University's alumni magazine.

Christine Mann, spokeswoman for the Texas Department of State Health Services, said Friday that Duncan's remains have been cremated, but she did not say when, where or by whom. Meanwhile, drums of potentially contaminated material taken from the apartment where he became ill was incinerated Friday at a hazardous material processing center in Port Arthur.

Also Friday, the World Health Organization announced that the Ebola death toll had surpassed 4,000 confirmed, probable or suspected Ebola deaths. All but nine were in Liberia, Sierra Leone or Guinea.

---

Schmall reported from North Carolina. Associated Press Medical Writer Lauran Neergaard in Washington, writer Terry Wallace in Dallas and researchers Rhonda Shafner and Barbara Sambriski in New York contributed to this report.



http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/storie...RECORDS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

 

[Countrymouse]

I thought the medical records were given to AP news by the family....

Oct 11, 11:09 AM EDT

EBOLA PATIENT DISPLAYED SYMPTOMS AT FIRST ER VISIT
BY EMILY SCHMALL, HOLBROOK MOHR AND NOMAAN MERCHANT
ASSOCIATED PRESS

DALLAS (AP) -- The man said he'd recently traveled from West Africa, was in severe pain - rating it an eight on a scale of 10 - and had a fever that spiked to 103 degrees, enough to be flagged with an exclamation point in the hospital's record-keeping system.

Thomas Eric Duncan, displaying symptoms that could indicate Ebola, underwent a battery of tests during his initial visit to the Dallas emergency room before eventually being sent home with a prescription for antibiotics, his medical records show.

The Liberian man would become the only person to die from the disease in the U.S.

Duncan's family provided his medical records to The Associated Press - more than 1,400 pages in all. They chronicle his time in the ER, his urgent return to the hospital two days later and his steep decline as his organs began to fail.





http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/storie...RECORDS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

Interesting...


however, I may be reading it wrong, but I got the impression that what the sister wants is either LATER information, or more SPECIFIC information, and the hospital is balking at that:

The family of the first Ebola victim to die in the United States says the hospital that cared for him has refused for weeks to release lab results showing the effects of an experimental drug treatment, fanning their suspicions that the facility mishandled the case.

 

[Straycat]

Straycat---a question---

the article states (and it's very long--you might have missed it?) that the sister signed forms with the hospital, designating her as her brother's representative.

And she WAS treated as his representative---up to and until a certain point.

Then--all of a sudden--she was cut off, without explanation.

Next thing she knew, the hospital is trying to say the son is his legal representative.

Which presents a bit of problem, since the son was in QUARANTINE, and due to that HE did NOT sign any papers, I assume---but we KNOW (per her lawyer) that the sister DID.

So--as her lawyer said---the hospital is trying to go "behind" the sister's back, AFTER THE FACT, and CHANGE the legal representative, AFTER THE PATIENTS' death (this is per the minister who said it was Karsiah who signed for the cremation---but of course no one has seen or heard from Karsiah so all we have is the minister's word from what he has been told, and the hospital's word, on this.) But--again---it was AFTER Duncan's DEATH, and AFTER the hospital already had had a signed form with the SISTER as her brother's legal adult representative.

The lawyer above says the hospital has "no authority" to do that---to arbitrarily CHANGE the adult rep--especially after the death of the patient.

Is that true, per your knowledge?

True, they can't change the rep, but the rep for medical decision-making while the patient is alive doesn't automatically become the rep for the estate once he dies. That requires different legal forms and usually a lawyer to be officially declared as such in court. Especially in such a high-profile case as this - I would imagine the hospital is going to be very sure they have every I dotted and every T crossed now, to protect themselves. I'm also pretty sure they're going over every single page of his chart looking for possible liabilities before they do anything. As I said, I think this is a combination of being very careful legally and using that as a delaying tactic while they assess their options.

 

[Nowski]

I worked in healthcare information technology(HIT) for over 20 years.

During that time, especially over the past 15 years, all we heard about
was HIPAA. It of course regulates issues such as this one.

Two things are for certain, regarding this disaster.

1. Duncan should have never been allowed into this country in the first place.
He was a dead man walking before he even left Liberia. There was nothing
that anyone could have done to save him.

2. Texas Presby hospital, which I lived a mile from during the early 1980's,
will go bankrupt, from the money that the Liberian's family is going to collect.
Hundreds of fine, hard working medical professionals will have their lives turned
upside down because of this.

Be safe everyone.

Regards to all,
Nowski

 

[xtreme_right]

Well, how very interesting.

Only his son Karsiah can gain access to any further "information" about Duncan---

but nobody can seem to find him.


And Karsiah has ....

neither picked up his father's ashes

nor

returned phone calls...


well, I imagine so---


kinda hard to do that when you're dead...


(doesn't this just wrap everything up in a nice, neat package for the hospital and for the CDC?)

Duncan's son was never under quarantine. Remember he was going to go see his father in the hospital the night before he died but didn't? He hadn't seen his father since he was very young. The son graduated from a Dallas high school this past May and is currently going to college in west Texas, I think. The college told him to take some time off to mourn.

 

[Countrymouse]

Duncan's son was never under quarantine. Remember he was going to go see his father in the hospital the night before he died but didn't? He hadn't seen his father since he was very young. The son graduated from a Dallas high school this past May and is currently going to college in west Texas, I think. The college told him to take some time off to mourn.

Not per the interview Louise Troh gave CNN --- she said that she, her sons, and a nephew were all quarantined together.

I think I posted that interview in the Dallas thread, earlier on--I'll try to find it again.

 

[Countrymouse]

Not per the interview Louise Troh gave CNN --- she said that she, her sons, and a nephew were all quarantined together.

I think I posted that interview in the Dallas thread, earlier on--I'll try to find it again.

I take it back--you're right, the 19-year old wasn't there; it was a 13 and a 17 year old, plus the nephew who were with her. Also corrected post above.

Here is the interview Louise Troh gave Anderson Cooper of CNN---she identifies who is with her & their ages & relation: (from "Dallas" thread: http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/showthread.php?457212-BIG-DAY-FOR-DALLAS&p=5398850#post5398850)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9YTTV4pxLw

 

[Kris Gandillon]

I take it back--you're right, the 19-year old wasn't there; it was a 13 and a 17 year old, plus the nephew who were with her. Also corrected post above.

Here is the interview Louise Troh gave Anderson Cooper of CNN---she identifies who is with her & their ages & relation: (from "Dallas" thread: http://www.timebomb2000.com/vb/showthread.php?457212-BIG-DAY-FOR-DALLAS&p=5398850#post5398850)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a9YTTV4pxLw

There is no mention of the names and ages of the children in that video link you provided above. But from the Ebola Tracking thread I documented this somewhere along the way:

The 4 people are Louise Troh, her 13 year old son, Timothy Wayne, a 21 year old nephew named Oliver Smallwood, and a 20 something friend of his named Jeffrey Cole.