--- title: Dallas Nurses Comforted Thomas Duncan as He Died of Ebola description: Frightened nurses gritted their teeth and cared for the dying man canonical: https://time.com/3538782/thomas-eric-duncan-ebola/ author: Sam Frizell article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-10-25T13:33:03.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T11:00:48.445Z article:section: Health og:title: Dallas Nurses Comforted Thomas Duncan as He Died of Ebola og:description: Frightened nurses gritted their teeth and cared for the dying man og:url: https://time.com/3538782/thomas-eric-duncan-ebola/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9bcca0a8eecbd468/698762c82dce0107009db268/nurses-texas-health-presbyterian-hospital.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2560 og:image:height: 1440 og:image:alt: Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas Nurses Speak To Media og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Dallas Nurses Comforted Thomas Duncan as He Died of Ebola twitter:description: Frightened nurses gritted their teeth and cared for the dying man twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9bcca0a8eecbd468/698762c82dce0107009db268/nurses-texas-health-presbyterian-hospital.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Dallas Nurses Describe Comforting Ebola Patient As He Lay Dying > Sponsored content. 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Health Matters is TIME's daily health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free daily newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. by [Sam Frizell](https://time.com/author/sam-frizell/) ## Sam Frizell Oct 25, 2014 1:33 PM UTC  Several dozen nurses from Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital gathered in front of the hospital to show support for their employer, Oct. 20, 2014 in Dallas. Several dozen nurses from Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital gathered in front of the hospital to show support for their employer, Oct. 20, 2014 in Dallas.Chip Somodevilla—Getty Images by [Sam Frizell](https://time.com/author/sam-frizell/) ## Sam Frizell Oct 25, 2014 1:33 PM UTC Thomas Eric Duncan, the Liberian national who unknowingly traveled to the United States carrying Ebola, died of the virus ten days after he was admitted to Texas Presbyterian Hospital. In the intervening period, Duncan was cared for by nurses who risked their lives to save him. In interviews that will be aired Sunday on [CBS’s _60 Minutes_](http://www.cbsnews.com/60-minutes/), the nurses describe for the first time trying to treat Duncan before his death. They recall holding the dying man’s hand as Duncan’s own family was not permitted in the room for fear of contracting the disease. “I was very frightened,” says intensive care nurse Sidia Rose, according to transcripts of the interview. “I was. But — and I just dried my tears, rolled down my sleeves, so to speak, and — went on about my night.” John Mulligan treated Duncan in his final hours of intensive care. “By the time he had — I saw him on October 1st — his — his nausea and vomiting had pretty much subsided. That aspect of it was over. He had a rectal tube in place so he didn’t — he was — had gotten so weak, he couldn’t get up to the commodes anymore. So that was to help contain all of his very infectious body fluids that we were dealing with,” Mulligan recalls. “On the first day he didn’t say much. He — he was — you could look in his eyes and tell he just didn’t feel good,” Mulligan continues. “And we offered him words of encouragement. We let him know that we’re here, whatever you need — let us know and we’ll get it. And we held his hand and talked to him and comforted him because his family couldn’t be there. I mean, you can’t take that risk with this type of disease of exposing, you know, loved ones, as much as you want them there. It’s just not a possibility.” Duncan died on October 8\. Two nurses contracted the disease from their contact with Duncan, but at least one has [since recovered](http://time.com/3537430/obama-hugs-nurse-ebola-survivor/). ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3538782/thomas-eric-duncan-ebola/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3538782/thomas-eric-duncan-ebola/"},"headline":"Dallas Nurses Describe Comforting Ebola Patient As He Lay Dying","datePublished":"2014-10-25T13:33:03.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T11:00:48.445Z","description":"Frightened nurses gritted their teeth and cared for the dying man","url":"https://time.com/3538782/thomas-eric-duncan-ebola/","keywords":["ebola","Infectious Disease"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9bcca0a8eecbd468/698762c82dce0107009db268/nurses-texas-health-presbyterian-hospital.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Sam Frizell","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/sam-frizell/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt9bcca0a8eecbd468/698762c82dce0107009db268/nurses-texas-health-presbyterian-hospital.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas Nurses Speak To Media","caption":"Several dozen nurses from Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital gathered in front of the hospital to show support for their employer Oct. 20, 2014 in Dallas.","creditText":"Chip Somodevilla—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/ebola/","name":"ebola"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3538782/thomas-eric-duncan-ebola/","name":"Dallas Nurses Describe Comforting Ebola Patient As He Lay Dying"}}]}] ```