--- title: Ebola: Thomas Eric Duncan Family and Dallas Hospital Reach Settlement description: The hospital has reached a settlement with the family of Thomas Eric Duncan and will help create a foundation in his name canonical: https://time.com/3581185/ebola-thomas-eric-duncan-hospital-settlement/ author: Sam Frizell article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-11-12T18:06:44.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:00:22.726Z article:section: Health og:title: Ebola Victim's Family and Dallas Hospital Reach Settlement og:description: The hospital will also help create a foundation in Thomas Eric Duncan's name og:url: https://time.com/3581185/ebola-thomas-eric-duncan-hospital-settlement/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc00e440a1ad827a7/6987686d0b72e337fc6dbe12/texas-ebola-hospital.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 4764 og:image:height: 2680 og:image:alt: Ebola Monitoring og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Ebola Victim's Family and Dallas Hospital Reach Settlement twitter:description: The hospital will also help create a foundation in Thomas Eric Duncan's name twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc00e440a1ad827a7/6987686d0b72e337fc6dbe12/texas-ebola-hospital.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Ebola Victim's Family and Dallas Hospital Reach Settlement > Sponsored content. 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Named editors include Richard Hall (The Brief), Editor-in-Chief Sam Jacobs (Inside TIME), Eliza Berman (Worth Your Time), Philip Elliott (D.C. Brief), Justin Worland (Future Proof) and Harry Booth (In the Loop). Health Matters is written by TIME's health desk. #### How do I sign up for a TIME newsletter? Go to time.com/newsletters, choose the newsletters you want and enter your email address. There is no cost and no subscription requirement. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-network-2026q3/newsletters?i=63833762-9ae6-41a7-8343-cb1347df832f&cr=time-nl-network-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Contact Tracing: How To Trace The Spread of Ebola [Watch (HLS stream): Contact Tracing: How To Trace The Spread of Ebola](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/EJ3m56cA.m3u8) (1:49)  _Published 2014-10-02. Health officials in the US are using a method known as contact tracing, to see who is at risk from Ebola._ by [Sam Frizell](https://time.com/author/sam-frizell/) ## Sam Frizell Nov 12, 2014 6:06 PM UTC  Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas where Thomas Eric Duncan the first Ebola patient diagnosed in the U.S. received care on Sept. 30, 2014. Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas where Thomas Eric Duncan the first Ebola patient diagnosed in the U.S. received care on Sept. 30, 2014. LM Otero—AP by [Sam Frizell](https://time.com/author/sam-frizell/) ## Sam Frizell Nov 12, 2014 6:06 PM UTC The family of the first patient diagnosed with Ebola in the United States announced Wednesday that a settlement had been reached with the Dallas hospital that treated him before his death. The deal with Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital was “as good or better than we would have done in court,” Les Weisbrod, a lawyer for the family of Thomas Eric Duncan, said at a news conference. Medical malpractice suits in Texas have an upper liability limit of $250,000 for a claimant. If the Duncan family had taken the hospital to court, it would have had to reach a very high legal bar, proving the hospital knew its staff was causing harm when they treated Duncan. Staffers at Texas Health Presbyterian had originally sent Duncan home after he went to the emergency room, even though he had a fever and was recently in Liberia, among the three hardest-hit nations in an outbreak that has killed more than 5,000 people. He died Oct. 8; two nurses who were a part of Duncan’s medical team would later contract Ebola but, after treatment elsewhere, be declared virus-free. The hospital has also agreed to create a foundation in Duncan’s name to fund the construction of a facility to combat Ebola in Liberia. The fund will be administered by one of the existing foundations of Texas Health Resources, and the family said it is seeking contributions. “I can never replace Thomas Eric Duncan, but we can make sure that we make this better for everyone else,” said Josephus Weeks, Duncan’s nephew. ## Transcript Now that the first case of Ebola has been diagnosed on American soil, what's next? How can we keep the virus from spreading? Health officials are now turning to a process known as contact tracing to figure out who else might have been exposed to the virus. The likeliest candidates are the medical technicians who treated him. That's because Ebola is spread by direct contact with bodily fluids, which health workers could have come in contact with while treating the patient. Beyond that are the patient's family members or people who have been living in close quarters with him since he developed the symptoms, including fever. Vomiting or diarrhea. These people will be monitored for 21 days, which is the incubation period of Ebola, to see if they develop similar symptoms. They won't be quarantined, but they might be asked to avoid traveling out of the country and spending time in crowded public areas. If anyone in either of these rings appears infected. Health officials will extend their monitoring to include anyone those people have been in contact with. Including their family members, school classmates, or work colleagues, until no more Ebola symptoms are discovered. Beyond that, if people in this ring appear infected, they too would be monitored for symptoms for 21 days, and the analysis would spread to their contacts. The passengers on the patient's flights from Liberia to the US aren't considered at high risk of exposure, since he was not experiencing symptoms then. Of course, all of this depends on honest and accurate information from the patient and his contacts about where they have been and with whom. Something that has been an issue in West Africa. There the stigma against Ebola has led patients to flee health volunteers who are attempting to trace contacts or fail to report people they have interacted with. 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