A suspected Ebola case turned a Prague hospital into one of Europe’s tightest quarantine labs
by https://euobserver.com/author/ondrej-kundra/ · EUobserverIt was wonderful to see the light. (Patrick LaRochelle in the biobox at Bulovka Hospital. The photograph is of poor quality because it was taken through a computer screen; visitors are currently not permitted to see the patient in person.) Source: Milan Jaroš
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By Ondřej Kundra,
Prague
,
American doctor Patrick LaRochelle has been lying for eighteen days in a hermetically sealed biobox in Prague’s Bulovka hospital, waiting to see whether the deadly Ebola virus will appear. The only people who can approach him are doctors in special suits – and Respekt has now interviewed him.
This is his story.
Everything I need
“This window is a huge gift for me, even though I cannot go up to it, open it, and breathe in fresh air. After they brought me here, the blinds were closed and I was afraid I would not see sunlight for days. But when I woke up, I saw it, which was great – and it still is,” LaRochelle said, pointing to the outlines of the city beyond the glass, with the silhouette of the Žižkov TV tower.
We are talking to him remotely over Zoom. Just as he cannot get to the window, nobody else can get to him. In the middle of his hospital room a transparent tent has been installed, a few metres wide and long, and the doctor spends all his time inside it. The window is behind the tent wall, so it is out of his reach. “But I have a small fridge, a bed, books, a phone, a computer and washing facilities, so everything I need. Except for my family, of course. Today my wife Anna and I have our sixteenth anniversary of being together, I miss her and the children a lot,” LaRochelle said.
With his wife and three children, LaRochelle is currently in touch only remotely. “I cannot wait to see them again,” LaRochelle said. He does not yet know for sure when that will happen. The incubation period for Ebola is 21 days from contact, and even though a person is without symptoms for most of that time, the disease can break out at the very last moment.
The current Ebola strain, which most often spreads through contact with blood or bodily fluids, is a contagious disease with a mortality rate of between thirty and fifty percent. The only civilian hospital in Czechia that can admit patients suspected of having it is Bulovka (the second option is the military hospital complex in Těchonín). LaRochelle is lying at Bulovka in the Infectious Diseases Clinic, in a fourth-floor room with the strictest hygiene regime. “After I was admitted, the doctors gave me monoclonal antibodies and they have been monitoring me ever since,” he said.
Preventing any contact
The photographs that the media carried from LaRochelle’s arrival in Prague in late May recalled horror science-fiction films. A man in a plastic sarcophagus lies on a wheeled bed pushed into the gloom of the hospital interior by another man in an orange protective suit. The transport was supervised by the police, and nobody without authorisation was allowed closer than one hundred metres to the patient.
The sarcophagus was slid into the biobox and from it LaRochelle then slipped into his current quarters without any contact with the outside world. Since then he has been under constant supervision by doctors and nurses. Two of them are on remote duty for him twenty-four hours a day; from a separate office they observe him on cameras, and once a day, one of them visits him directly at his bedside. Given that LaRochelle is not showing symptoms of the disease, in-person visits by medical staff are less frequent because it is always a complicated logistical operation.
“Before a doctor goes in to see him, they have to put on an airtight full-body suit. And even before putting it on, they have to attach a powered air-purifying unit to their body, which ensures a supply of filtered air inside so that the wearer can breathe safely,” said Hana Roháčová, head doctor at the Infectious Diseases Clinic. “It is complicated, it takes twenty minutes, and it has to be done carefully so that there is no possible contact with the body of an infected person or anyone who might be infected. We cannot afford the slightest mistake.”
The same applies to leaving LaRochelle’s room. When any doctor or nurse leaves him, the first thing they must do is shut themselves in the adjoining decontamination chamber, where they shower in disinfectant for ten minutes, still in the suit, to remove any potentially life-threatening contamination. They then have to wait another ten minutes for the agent to take effect. Only then can they remove the suit, which is immediately incinerated. The same goes for all other waste produced by LaRochelle, including biological waste.
LaRochelle’s meals, meanwhile, are delivered by a secured route: they slide them into the biobox through a chamber kept under negative pressure so that any possible virus cannot escape. Unlike the doctors, LaRochelle does not have to wear any protective suit inside his cubicle. During the interview with Respekt he was wearing an open checked shirt, seemed relaxed and in good spirits. “I really have to say how well everyone here is taking care of me. I am very grateful to your country for that,” he said.
Minister, will you help us?
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It was wonderful to see the light. (Patrick LaRochelle in the biobox at Bulovka Hospital. The photograph is of poor quality because it was taken through a computer screen; visitors are currently not permitted to see the patient in person.) Source: Milan Jaroš
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Author Bio
Ondřej Kundra is the deputy editor-in-chief of Respekt, where he has been a permanent editorial member since 2002 focusing on Czech politics, justice, and the influence of foreign powers like Russia and China. He is award-winning investigative journalist, he has authored several books covering topics ranging from Russian intelligence services and European jihadists to Czech military aid for Ukraine.
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