Wednesday, October 29, 2014

Stupid Leaves A Mark



Apparently in all her time in nursing school and the CDC, no one ever mentioned the concept that the state decides who gets quarantined, not the patients. That sting is reality smacking you in your stupid face, MiMi. Not STFU, call J. Noble Daggett, and see what your chances are in court of telling the state where to get off.
And as for your future professional career?
Sh'yeah, as if.
I hope you can survive on those no-salary volunteer gigs, because your next nursing job will be coming around somewhere close to 2078.
Attorneys for a nurse released from isolation in New Jersey after returning to the U.S. from West Africa say she will not comply with Maine health officials’ requirements that she remain under quarantine at home for 21 days.
“She doesn’t want to agree to continue to be confined to a residence beyond the two days,” Hyman said.
Maine health officials have said they expect Hickox to agree to be quarantined at her home until 21 days have passed since her last potential exposure to the virus. Twenty-one days is the maximum incubation period for the Ebola virus.
Early Tuesday evening, Maine Department of Health and Human Services Commissioner Mary Mayhew noted at a hastily called news conference that the state has the authority to seek a court order to compel quarantine for individuals deemed a public health risk.
She did not address Hickox’s case directly, saying the state has not filed a court order.
Another attorney representing Hickox, New York civil rights lawyer Norman Siegel, said she would contest any potential court order requiring her quarantine at home.
Hickox’s boyfriend, Ted Wilbur, a University of Maine at Fort Kent nursing student, plans to join her and will not return to campus for the next 21 days, according to Raymond Phinney, associate dean of student life and development at the university.
Mayhew reinforced the state’s intent to prevent people who have been exposed to Ebola from contact with others during the news conference at the department’s offices in Bangor late Tuesday afternoon.
“The way that goes right now is that anybody who remains at home with an individual that is placed at risk, who’s had exposure, if that patient does become symptomatic, all family members must agree to go into quarantine for a 21-day period,” Mayhew said.
She acknowledged that the state’s protocols “may go slightly beyond the federal guidelines,” but described them as a common-sense approach to guard against a public health crisis.
“As we’ve indicated, the intent is to minimize public contact if they have family members who have become exposed to them and they later develop symptoms, those individuals would be subject to the 21-day quarantine.”
“If they had visitors, those visitors would be subject to the quarantine if the individual under quarantine develops symptoms,” Mayhew said.
“We will proceed with a court order to seek legal authority as provided under Maine law,” Mayhew said. “We expected that the Maine attorney general’s office will represent the Department of Health and Human Services in this avenue of pursuing a court order,” she said,.
“And I do want to comment a little bit on the science here,” Pinette said, referring to reports that the nurse had not tested positive for Ebola.
“The problem we’re faced with here is that this is a blood-borne pathogen,” Pinette said. “We don’t know a lot about this virus but we do know from the experiences learned in Texas that they had some equivocal tests within the first 72 hours of testing their health care workers and we need to go based on the facts.
“The fact of the matter is that it has a 21-day incubation period. This individual was tested within the first 24 to 48 hours and the federal CDC was in agreement with retesting the patient should she develop symptomatology,” she said, adding, “But they wanted to wait 72 hours and they wanted to continue to keep the individual under 21-day incubation period for monitoring because as the viral load increases, that is how you can develop a positive Ebola test.
“So we believe that she may have been tested too early and therefore that is the reason why we continue to monitor this individual. So I have to say, in my own clinical opinion, to protect the health and safety of even one Mainer, it is extremely important for us to be very, very cautious,” Pinette said.
 
And reverting to her base intelligence level (4 years old), Crybaby now has her very own Maine State Trooper contingent to help explain the facts of life to her, and friend boy won't be continuing in his nursing program. Those two developments alone should be no small comfort to lovers of sanity in this difficult crisis.

And when she has her ass legally handed to her and ends up with the choice between jail, or her cabin in Port Kent, the lightbulb may finally snap on over her head, and she might realize that "public" is the keyword in "public health nursing".

What an ever-loving embarrassment to an entire profession.



9 comments:

Anonymous said...

I was wondering if you happened to know, since the whole thing started with Nurse Whiney-Pants, how many other healthcare workers have returned to the US from Africa, and what's happened with them? I don't know how often healthcare workers return and I know it's only been since Friday, but this situation with her seems to be very distracting. No one else has come back in need of quarantine? Any ideas?

Anonymous said...

One thing I am learning, one doctor and nurse at a time, is who I'd be clobbering with bedpans as I signed discharge papers as fast I could if they so much as WALKED by any hospital room I was ever in. Nurse Whiny and Doctor Liar can stay the HELL away from me and my family. I'd rather croak of whatever malady I was originally in the hospital for than put myself in their hands.

Anonymous said...

Oh and just to be clear, not even because of the Ebola thing (though that's nasty enough, if they don't have it, or get over it that's fine), it's the whole weird "trust" thing you have to develop with your doctors and nurses. They just lost all of mine, forever.

Aesop said...

There are dozens to hundreds, and as the holidays approach, their returns loom closer.
And they're going to hit ground knowing that 10 states here already have quarantine protocols in effect, including every one of the states with the five entry airports.

A Texan said...

I really hope that nurse whiney-pants doesn't have Ebola.

BUUUUUT...

...if she does, she will have advanced the twin causes of quarantines and banning travel from West Africa more than any politician could have hoped to do (short of Obola, himself, waking the fuck up). It would be quite the delicious irony.

But, and I really mean this, I sincerely hope that she doesn't have anything except a case of terminal stupidity, complicated by extreme narcissism.

Anonymous said...

"Dear Selfish Bitch, R.N.;
Thanks for going overseas to ply your legitimate trade. Now that you're home in the U.S., contrary to what you think, based on your own too liberal education; we are a nation of laws. These laws are not based on your agreement with them. Many, including the one that says you get quarantined to protect the public good; do not require your permission, only your obedience. Should you not co-operate; you will be compelled to by force. This is for your own protection, because now that your face and attitude have been publicized; you are at an equal amount of danger from the population as you would put them in. Putting them at risk for their lives will result in you being at risk for yours, from long range high speed lead poisoning.
Have a nice day.
the citizens of Maine"

A Texan said...

Well, now, apparantly nurse Crankypants and her beau decided to go out for a bike ride. https://twitter.com/SteveGreenlee/status/527809646783135745 FYI, I understand that Steve Greenlee is the editor of the Portland, ME paper that is going to break this story.

I hope the 2 of them are arrested - which is probably what they want, just for publicity's sake. These 2 left-side Bell Curve inhabitants clearly never heard about the ancient Chinese saying, "Be careful what you wish for, you may get it."

Anonymous said...

A blog you may be interested in adding to your watch-list:

http://www.psandman.com/col/Ebola-3.htm

Ex-Dissident said...

Both Typhoid Kaci and Spencer the Pestulant should have their licenses revoked. The world has become insane and this is just another example.