Nation in brief: TB patient denies running away
The globe-trotting tuberculosis patient moved up his flight to Europe after health officials urged him to stay put – but the Atlanta lawyer, in defiant testimony from his hospital room Wednesday, insisted he wasn’t ducking anyone.
“I didn’t go running off or hide from people. It’s a complete fallacy; it’s a lie,” Andrew Speaker told a Senate subcommittee by telephone from the Denver hospital where he remains in government-ordered isolation with an exceptionally dangerous form of TB.
But U.S. doctors painted a picture of a man on the run from the start, revealing that Speaker left for his wedding and honeymoon two days earlier than planned – and saying they were blocked by Georgia law from stopping him and thus preventing what turned into an international health scare.
Then when Speaker turned up in Rome, the government hesitated to ask Italian authorities to quarantine him in favor of offering him a second chance to cooperate. Instead, Speaker fled, slipping back across a U.S. border that was supposed to be closed to him.
“We gave the patient the benefit of the doubt, and in retrospect we made a mistake,” said Dr. Julie Gerberding, head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Sheboygan, Wis.
Man seeking phone drowns in sewer
A 41-year-old man drowned Wednesday after getting stuck in a storm sewer trying to retrieve a cell phone, police said.
The man weighed more that 300 pounds and was wedged with his head and shoulders underwater in a vertical storm drain in front of his home, said police Lt. Tim Eirich.
The man’s identity was not released pending notification of relatives.
Neighbor Chris Van Erem said he saw the man kneeling over the sewer before he fell in. Police said the man pulled the iron grate off trying to get the cell phone.
“I ran over and tried to pull him on out,” Van Erem said. “Absolutely helpless was the feeling. I couldn’t budge him.”
Van Erem said it ultimately took six firefighters to pull the man from the sewer. Sheboygan County Coroner David Leffin ruled the man’s death as an accidental drowning.
Cape Canaveral, Fla.
NASA prepares for shuttle launch
NASA resolved lingering concerns about lines connecting the external fuel tank to Atlantis on Wednesday and moved ahead with preparations for the first space shuttle launch of the year.
Forecasters predicted a 70 percent chance the weather would be favorable for launching Atlantis on Friday.
The launch originally was set for mid-March but was postponed after a freak hail storm caused thousands of dings in the insulating foam on Atlantis’ external tank. Technicians spent more than two months making painstaking repairs to the tank.
During the 11-day mission, Atlantis and its seven astronauts are scheduled to deliver a new segment and a pair of energy-producing solar panels to the international space station.