Nurses and doctors working at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital defended the Dallas hospital during a press conference Monday against criticisms for the death of Thomas Eric Duncan, the first case of Ebola in United States.

Chief nursing officer Cole Edmonson appealed to the public that the Dallas hospital, which took care of Duncan before his demise on October 8, remains a "great hospital, an excellent hospital."

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Presbyterian's reputation was marred by criticisms of mishandling Ebola cases. Presbyterian then took Burson-Marsteller, a PR firm based in New York, for crisis management.

After Duncan's death, the family went against the hospital management saying that the 42-year-old victim was misdiagnosed despite high fever and spoken history of travel in West Africa.

Last week, the National Nurses' United alleged that Presbyterian was unable to provide health workers with full protective gear. The statements came hours after Nina Pham, the nurse assigned in Duncan's case, was diagnosed of Ebola. She is currently held at the National Institutes of Health in Maryland.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), health workers are highly prone to contracting Ebola before the diagnosis and the isolation phases because of extensive exposure to body fluids such as vomit and diarrhea.

The CDC is now probing if there was a breach in Presbyterian guidelines, but the union said there were no protocols set in the first place. Edmonson also announced that it is diverting emergency cases to other hospitals to allocate its resources substantially in treating nurses that might have been infected.

Meanwhile, the emergency department is now accepting patients who do not arrive by ambulance.

Other nurses like Julie Boling, who has been working for Presbyterian for 20 years now, defended that the contamination would have occurred in any experience at the onset of the virus. She commended the hospital for owning up to its mistakes and responding accordingly on the situations.

TagsHealth Medical Pharma, medicine, Biology, Presbyterian Hospital, Ebola Virus Disease