Today it was announced that Thomas Eric Duncan, an Ebola patient in Dallas, Texas died from complications with the deadly virus. Duncan was the first person in the United States to be diagnosed with Ebola and unlike the two aid workers who were transported from Africa to Emory University Hospital in Atlanta; he didn’t receive the Ebola-fighting ZMapp cocktail.
Yahoo news reports: The Liberian citizen, who recently traveled from West Africa to Dallas to reunite with a long lost son and the teen’s mother, had been in isolation at Texas Health Presbyterian since Sept. 28.
It wasn’t immediately known what would happen to his body, which could remain contagious for several days. Guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention call for the remains to be immediately shrouded in plastic and double-bagged in leak-proof bags at the hospital then promptly cremated or buried in an airtight casket.
Duncan’s death comes four days after his condition was downgraded from serious to critical. Over the weekend, he had begun receiving brincidofovir, an experimental antiviral drug which recently gained emergency approval from the FDA.
In Indiana, a Hammond couple is suing the local police department for excessive force following a traffic stop on September 24. Lisa Mahone and her boyfriend Jamal Jones were pulled over for allegedly not wearing their seatbelts. After refusing to step out of the car, Jones who was seated on the passenger side was shot with a Taser gun after officers smashed his window open. He was then pulled out of the vehicle and handcuffed while two children, a 7-year old girl and a 14-year old boy (who caught everything on film) watched on in the background.
At a press conference on Tuesday, Jones said that “It felt like my civil rights were just thrown out the window, along with my body,”
These situations have caused quite a stir on social media as some feel that once again, injustice has been dealt.
What are your thoughts?
