The head of a Dallas hospital that treated Ebola patent Thomas Eric Duncan apologized on Sunday in a full-page newspaper ad after the facility initially misdiagnosed Duncan's condition.
Barclay Berdan, CEO of Texas Health Resources, which owns Presbyterian Hospital Dallas, wrote in the letter that the hospital "made mistakes in handling this very difficult challenge." Though Duncan checked himself in Sept. 25 while exhibiting Ebola symptoms and told staff he had just returned from West Africa, he was sent home. He returned three days later and was immediately isolated, though it was too late and he died earlier this month.
"Although we had begun our Ebola preparedness activities, our training and education programs had not been fully deployed before the virus struck," Berdan wrote in the letter, published in the Dallas Morning News. "In short, despite our best intentions and skilled medical teams, we did not live up to the high standards that are the heart of our hospital's history, mission and commitment."
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