Ebola Recovered Nurse Sues Hospital for lack of Damage Control

Nina Pham, a 26-year-old nurse contracted Ebola while caring for the first person in the United States.

Nina Pham, a 26-year-old nurse contracted Ebola while caring for the first person in the United States diagnosed with the deadly disease.

Pham told The Dallas Morning News in an interview that she is preparing to file a lawsuit in Dallas County against Texas Health Resources. She has raised complaints that the lack of training to handle ebola and proper equipment in the hospital were the main reasons for her to contract with the disease.

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Ebola is caused by a virus via direct contact with body fluids or infected blood. Scientists have identified five types of Ebola or Ebola hemorrhagic fever virus.

Texas Health Resources was negligent because it failed to develop policies and train its staff for treating Ebola patients. She said that the company did not have proper protective gear for those who treated Thomas Eric Duncan, the first person in the U.S. diagnosed with the disease stemming from an outbreak in West Africa.

Pham and another nurse who worked at Texas Health Presbyterian, Amber Vinson, both became infected after caring for Duncan, according to medical records released to The Associated Press. "I was the last person beside Mr. Duncan to find out he was positive," she told The Morning News. "You'd think the primary nurse would be the first to know."

Charla Aldous, her attorney, alleged that Texas Health Resources used Nina as a PR pawn. "Information was disclosed to the public about Nina that she would rather have not been disclosed, including her identity," Aldous said.

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Zaire ebolavirus is commonly known as Ebola. It was previously known as ebola haemorrhagic fever and is a deadly human illness.

Aldous said Texas Health Resources used Pham's recovery to improve its image. She claims the hospital "misrepresented some of her medical issues" as part of "damage control."

Pham will ask in her lawsuit for unspecified damages for physical pain and mental anguish, medical expenses and loss of future earnings. But she said that she wants to "make hospitals and big corporations realize that nurses and health care workers, especially front line people, are important. And we don't want nurses to start turning into patients."