Hospital fires anti-vax nurse after she shares story of patient with measles on anti-vax FB page

A Texas nurse with anti-vaccination opinions has lost her job after allegedly sharing a young patient's information on a Facebook forum for supporters of the anti-vaccination movement.

What are the details?

The unnamed nurse, who formerly worked for the Texas Children's Hospital in Houston, reportedly shared her experience of working with a young male patient who had measles — something she'd apparently never seen in person before.

Despite the young boy's suffering, the nurse said that seeing the disease in action did not change her views on being against vaccinations.

According to screenshots of the comments, the nurse wrote, "I think it’s easy for us nonvaxxers to make assumptions but most of us have never and will never see one of theses diseases. [F]or the first time in my career I saw measles this week. Actually most of my coworkers and the ER docs saw measles for the first time as well. And honestly, it was rough. The kid was super sick. Sick enough to be admitted to the ICU and he looked miserable."

"By no means have I changed my vax stance, and I never will," she added. "But I just wanted to share my experience and how much worse it was than I expected."

The child's measles diagnosis marks at least the seventh case of the once-obsolete disease in Texas in 2018. According to the Texas Department of State Health Services, all diagnoses were as a result of not being vaccinated.

Another of the nurse's alleged posts said that she'd considered swabbing the ill patient's mouth and taking the sample home to infect her own son with the disease.

What did the hospital say?

The hospital fired the nurse for sharing protected patient health information and issued a statement on the young patient's diagnosis on Monday.

The organization's statement on the nurse's firing said, "We were made aware that one of our nurses posted protected health information regarding a patient on social media. We take these matters very seriously as the privacy and well-being of our patients is always a top priority. After an internal investigation, this individual is no longer with the organization."

The hospital's statement about the patient's measles diagnosis read, "A patient treated at Texas Children's Hospital West Campus tested positive for measles. This is a highly-contagious, vaccine-preventable infection. We know vaccination is the best protection against measles.

"Our Infection Control and Prevention team immediately identified other children who may have come in contact with this patient to assess their risk and provide clinical recommendations. We have contacted all of those families."