Ebola patient’s death renews tough questions about his medical care, hospital’s decisions
Ebola patient’s death renews tough questions about his medical care, hospital’s decisions
DALLAS (AP) — The death of the first Ebola patient diagnosed in the United States renewed questions about his medical care and whether Thomas Eric Duncan’s life could have been extended or saved if the Texas hospital where he first sought help had taken him in sooner.
Duncan died in Dallas on Wednesday, a little more than a week after his illness exposed gaps in the nation’s defenses against the disease and set off a scramble to track down anyone exposed to him.
The 42-year-old Liberian man had been kept in isolation since Sept. 28 at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, where a fevered Duncan first showed up a couple of days earlier and told the staff he had been in West Africa. Doctors initially sent him home. He returned after his condition worsened.
Dr. Phil Smith is the director of the biocontainment center at the Nebraska Medical Center, where an NBC News freelance cameraman is being treated for Ebola. He said getting early treatment is key to surviving Ebola.
When a patient reaches the point of needing dialysis and respiratory help, as Duncan did this week, there may be little doctors can do.
Supreme Court justice allows gay marriage to begin in Nevada, but not Idaho
WASHINGTON (AP) — Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy on Wednesday allowed same-sex marriage to begin in Nevada, clarifying that an earlier order temporarily blocking gay unions applies only to Idaho.
Kennedy said in a brief order that he was lifting the hold he imposed five hours earlier Wednesday on same-sex weddings in Nevada. He said his order would continue to block gay marriage in Idaho, where state officials have asked for the delay. Nevada officials did not make a similar request.
The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco declared gay marriage legal in Idaho and Nevada on Tuesday. A day earlier, the Supreme Court let similar rulings from three other appeals courts become final and effectively raised to 30 the number of states where same-sex couples can marry, or soon will be able to do so.
In response to the 9th Circuit decision, Idaho officials filed an emergency request with the court about 90 minutes before they said that state and county officials would otherwise have been required to begin issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples.
Kennedy’s initial order was issued around 9:50 a.m. EDT, 10 minutes before the deadline cited by Idaho officials. The order initially included Nevada, where officials had been planning to start issuing marriage licenses to same-sex couples later Wednesday.
At Pentagon, Obama says he’s confident US will keep making progress against Islamic State
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama told top military commanders Wednesday that he’s confident the U.S. will keep making progress in its fight against the Islamic State group, as the reality set in of a protracted military engagement with limited prospects for success.
Flanked by the top military brass at the Pentagon, Obama said he was heartened to see that a broad international consensus had emerged that the extremist group that now controls much of Iraq and Syria poses a threat to world peace. He said nations across the globe have come to the conclusion that the group’s “barbaric behavior has to be dealt with.”
“This is not something that can be solved overnight,” Obama said. “Our strikes continue, alongside our partners.”
After meeting with commanders, Obama also convened his National Security Council at the Pentagon to discuss efforts to rebuild Iraq’s beleaguered military, and train and arm Syrian opposition groups that the U.S. hopes will battle the Islamic State on the ground so Western troops don’t have to.
The high-level meetings come amid growing concerns about whether the U.S.-led campaign is working, and whether the president can both keep his pledge to destroy the Islamic State group and keep U.S. troops out of combat.
Congressional Budget Office: Federal budget deficit falls to $486B, lowest of Obama’s tenure
WASHINGTON (AP) — The federal government’s budget deficit has fallen to $486 billion, the smallest pool of red ink of President Barack Obama’s six-year span in office, a new report said Wednesday.
The Congressional Budget Office’s latest estimate shows better results than earlier projections by both CBO and the White House budget office.
It comes as Congress has mostly paused in its wrangling over the deficit in the run-up to the midterm elections next month.
Obama inherited a trillion-dollar-plus deficit after the 2008 financial crisis but that red-ink figure has improved in recent years as the economy has recovered. Last year’s deficit registered at $680 billion.
The government registered deficits exceeding $1 trillion during Obama’s first term, but the recovering economy has boosted revenues while Republican-imposed curbs on agency operating budgets have combined to shrink the deficit.