Have you wondered why Ebola patients are being sent to Omaha, Nebraska? It’s because one physician, Dr. Philip Smith, had the foresight to set up the Nebraska Biocontainment Patient Care Unit after the Sept. 11 attacks as a bulwark against bioterrorism. Empty for more than a decade, used only for drills, it was called “Maurer’s Folly,” for Harold Maurer, former chancellor of the University of Nebraska Medical Center. The unit has a special air handling system to keep germs from escaping from patient rooms, and a steam sterilizer for scrubs and equipment. It could handle at most 10 patients at a time, but one or two would be more comfortable, owing to the large volume...
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