Dallas ER Doctor missed signs of Ebola

The Dallas emergency-room doctor who missed signs of Ebola in a Liberian man who later became the fist to die of the disease in the U.S. is telling his story for the first time.

Dr. Joseph Howard Meier told The Dallas Morning News that when he treatedThomas Eric Duncan in the early morning hours of Sept. 26, he was unaware that Duncan had recently arrived from a country ravaged by the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. He also said he did not realize Duncan had such a high fever.

“I was unaware of a 103-degree fever,” Meier said in written answers to questions from the paper, released by his attorney. “It appears in the chart, but I did not see it.

Meier said he believed his care was appropriate given what he knew at the time, though he acknowledged missing the diagnosis — something he said a doctor always regrets. Encountering the nation’s first Ebola patient, he told the paper, was “a little bit like getting struck by lightning, but mild in comparison to what Mr. Duncan’s family has gone through in losing a loved one to Ebola.” (read more)