Health care workers put their lives on the line every single day.
So it is with sadness, but not complete surprise, that we learned Sunday that a Dallas nurse who cared for Thomas Eric Duncan, who died from Ebola last week, was diagnosed with the virus.
Nurses are some of the most hardworking and most underappreciated members of the health care team.
Once doctors are done prodding and prescribing, it’s nurses who administer medications and spend precious time comforting the sick.
Precautions are taken and safety is at the forefront of our minds, but sometimes, in the quest to provide the best comfort and care, mistakes are made.
Long shifts, unsociable hours and heavy workloads take their toll.
Even the most careful among us are at risk. I will never forget the busy night shift when I took a blood sample from a very sick elderly man and, in my rush to send the sample to the lab as quickly as possible, stuck myself with the used needle.
Time stood still.
The words “HIV,” “hepatitis” and “incurable” flashed before my eyes.
Eventually, the patient tested negative for all infectious diseases. I was in the clear. But not without days of worry and concern from my family and friends.
Preparation is key to preventing the spread of diseases.
But for health care workers, the risk is never zero.
Dr. Seema Yasmin, a former epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is a physician and a professor at the University of Texas at Dallas. Follow her on Twitter at @DoctorYasmin.
