Deputy on Ebola scare: 'All hell's about to break loose'
FRISCO, Texas — These days, the mere mention of the word "Ebola" can cause panic.
Case in point: The event that unfolded Wednesday at a CareNow clinic in Frisco.
Michael Monnig, a sergeant with the Dallas County Sheriff's Office, had gone there for help with stomach pain. But, he also told the staff that he'd been involved in the case of Dallas' first Ebola patient, Thomas Eric Duncan.
The sergeant's wife, Lisa Monnig, described what happened next as she was on the phone with him.
"His exacts words were, 'I'm at CareNow, and all hell's about to break loose,' and I said, 'Why?' And he said, 'I hear helicopters overhead,'" Lisa Monnig said. "They freaked. I think they totally freaked out."
Michael Monnig was one of five deputies who accompanied county officials into the Dallas apartment where Duncan had stayed. They had gone there Oct. 1 to deliver a quarantine order, as instructed by Sheriff Lupe Valdez.
On Oct. 3, Monnig and other deputies met with county health officials about concerns for their own health. They were told that the risk of contracting Ebola was next to non-existent because they did not have direct contact with Duncan or any of his bodily fluids. But they were also told to go to a doctor if they started feeling sick.
Lisa Monnig said she was on a business trip when her husband called and said that he wasn't well.
"He had some stomach paints and he felt like he'd been hit by a truck," his wife said.
The deputy contacted Dr. Charles Perkins, Dallas County's medical director, who told Monnig to go to his doctor or to an urgent care facility if he couldn't get in to see his doctor. The deputy did as he was told.
His wife said she doesn't know if that was good advice or not, but said she can also see why panic ensued.
She said her husband was asked several questions by the clinic's staff. She doesn't know exactly those questions were, but he soon found himself confined to a room.
The clinic called 911.
The clinic shut down. Employees and patients donned masks. Rescue workers dressed in haz-mat suits swarmed the area.
Initial reports were frightening.
It was said that someone had shown up to the clinic who had been in direct contact with Duncan. The clinic said the patient had been to Africa.
Soon came word that the patient was actually Monnig, who had not had any direct contact with Duncan and had not been to Africa.
Monnig – his face covered with a mask and his hands encased in rubber gloves — was escorted to an ambulance Wednesday afternoon.
With media helicopters flying overhead, he was taken to Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, the same hospital where Duncan died Wednesday morning.
Meanwhile, Lisa Monnig rushed back from her business trip.
"I understand that there's procedures and protocol that needs to be followed," she said. "I just think with all the media attention, it's just been blown out of proportion."
Her husband was put in isolation. The family wasn't allowed into see him. Relatives sent them messages from England, saying they had seen him on BBC.
Lisa Monnig said Thursday morning that her husband wasn't scared, that he didn't think he had Ebola, and that he was ready for the test results to come in so he could go home.
She, too, did not believe her husband had Ebola.
"I think he's probably got a stomach bug," she said. "That's probably it. Nothing more."
She was right. The tests results came back Thursday afternoon. Her husband doesn't have Ebola.
He was released from the hospital Thursday night. His wife said he has an upper respiratory virus.
The CareNow clinic in Frisco will reopen Friday.