A Dallas physician has described as "remarkably insulting" assertions that Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital failed to provide quality care to Thomas Eric Duncan because he was black and lacked health insurance.
"I find that remarkably insulting," Dr. Gary Weinstein, who has treated all three U.S. Ebola patients, told
WFAA-TV8 in Dallas. "I don't know how better to describe that.
"The team here worked their tails off trying to save his life," said Weinstein, who also has treated Nina Pham and Amber Vinson.
Pham, 26, has been transferred to the National Institutes of Health in Maryland for treatment, while Vinson, 29, was being cared for at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta.
Duncan, 42, died on Oct. 8 from Ebola. He was from Liberia, and came to the United States after he helped a pregnant woman in the Ebola-stricken country who later died from the disease.
He did not tell U.S. screening officials that he had contact with someone who had Ebola.
Duncan's memorial service was held on Saturday in North Carolina.
Texas Health Presbyterian officials have come under fire from national and local political figures, as well as from members of Duncan's family, over his treatment.
His nephew, Josephus Weeks, charged in an op-ed in
The Dallas Morning News this week that Duncan "was a man of color with no health insurance and no means to pay for treatment, so within hours he was released with some antibiotics and Tylenol."
Hospital officials apologized to a panel of the House Energy and Commerce Committee for "mistakes" in handling Duncan's case.
In the WFAA interview, Weinstein said that the nearly 70 medical practitioners in Duncan's case had worked very hard to save him but that "he was too sick."
"It was very, very quick," the physician added. "He was critically ill and unstable, and over a period of minutes, he lost his pulse and was dead."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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