Two recent 911 calls in North Texas are evidence of Ebola-related fear getting the better of some people, according to Fort Worth's emergency dispatch service.
MedStar Mobile Healthcare is the 911 and ambulance service provider for Forth Worth and 14 other Tarrant County cities.
Due to the three confirmed Ebola cases in Dallas, there has been an increased awareness of the disease in North Texas.
Healthcare providers are revising procedures and preparing for the arrival of possible Ebola patients.
And citizens are more aware than ever that this once-foreign scourge is now here, and it has infected two nurses who call Dallas-Fort Worth home.
But there is a concern that some people are allowing irrational fear to get the better of them.
"I've been exposed to an Ebola pilot," said one Fort Worth man in a 911 call he made this week.
The man, 55 years old, but otherwise unidentifiable, called from his seat at a Fort Worth restaurant, asking for an ambulance for himself and a man seated near him because of that man's conversation the caller overheard.
911 Operator: Sir, sir, listen to me. There's an airline pilot there and he told you he had Ebola?
Caller: Yes, he has been exposed. He came out of West Africa.
911 Operator: He came from West Africa?
Caller: From a European environment. Yep he has.
911 Operator: You said you were exposed?
Caller: I'm sitting next to him. And he has been on a flight from European countries.
911 Operator: Is it just that you've been exposed, or are you having any of the symptoms?
Caller: I'm sitting next to him and having dinner. And he just revealed that he's been in the European countries, including west Africa.
911 Operator: Ok, and are you having any chills or sweats?
Caller: I am not exposed. I am not having any indications.
MedStar did dispatch an ambulance to the restaurant to evaluate the caller, but neither he nor the pilot were taken for emergency treatment.
"So that's the level that this is really getting to," said Matt Zavadaky, MedStar's director of public affairs. "So we really want folks to get ahead of this a little bit and say, 'Ok, yes it's a concern. It's not a panic.' Let's just use the resources that we have the way that they're meant to be used."
Another 911 call that is of concern to emergency officials is one that did result in an ambulance transport to a hospital.
On Wednesday night, a woman called 911 to report that her 9-year-old son had vomited, had a temperature of 99 degrees, was experiencing stomach pains and that she had just received an automated phone call from her son's school district that immediately preceded the emergency call.
911 Operator: In the past 21 days has he been in contact with a patient that is ill and has traveled to a country where the Ebola outbreak is occurring?
Caller: He attends a school where a student there had a parent that had contact, or was on the plane with the last nurse that had, was diagnosed with the Ebola virus.
The caller was referring to a message delivered to her by the Eagle Mountain-Saginaw Independent School District that said a parent of a student at Lake Pointe Elementary School, where the caller's son attends, had been on the same Cleveland to DFW flight as Amber Vinson, the latest nurse from Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas.
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In response to the 911 call, MedStar sent an ambulance to the child's home and delivered the boy to the emergency department at Cook Children's Medical Center in Fort Worth.
The child was one of three minors, the other two were "walk ins," who went for treatment at the Cook Children's ER on Wednesday out of concern they may have contracted the Ebola virus, according to Zavadsky.
A hospital spokesperson was not aware of any of the children whose parents went to the emergency department out of Ebola-related fear.
"We understand people wanting to protect their children. They love their kids, they want the best for them," said Winifred King, assistant vice president of corporate and community affairs at Cook Children's. "But I think there needs to be some sober judgment when it comes to coming into the emergency department. You don't want to unnecessarily upset your child, and you don't want to jeopardize the system unnecessarily."
An Eagle Mountain-Saginaw ISD spokesperson confirmed Thursday that the purpose of the automated message was to help provide parents with useful information.
"The purpose of our message last night was to inform our community, not to cause alarm.
However, we understand that this is a serious disease and it is understandable that parents may have concerns," said Kristin Courtney, director of communications for Eagle Mountain-Saginaw ISD.
