Tarrant County sends man with TB to San Antonio
A 25-year-old Fort Worth man who refused to get treatment for contagious tuberculosis was en route to the state’s infectious disease hospital in San Antonio Thursday, Tarrant County officials said.
Jimmy Tristian Trondle spent months dodging public health workers but agreed to comply with a court order issued this week that requires him to get treatment at the Texas Center for Infectious Disease, said Chris Ponder, the prosecutor who filed an application for Trondle’s commitment.
The facility is the state’s TB hospital and is equipped to work with “noncompliant” patients, a spokesman for the Texas Department of State Health Services said. Three other people have been committed to the center for noncompliance this year, he said.
Guarded by Tarrant County sheriff’s deputies, Trondle was moved from John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth where he had been since Wednesday, Ponder said.
Tuberculosis is a disease caused by bacteria that usually attacks the lungs but can infect any part of the body. Once the leading cause of the death in the United States, TB is curable with proper treatment, although some strains of TB have become drug-resistant, according to the state health services website.
There isn’t a set timetable for Trondle’s stay in San Antonio, but he won’t have to be there longer than a year, Ponder said.
“I’m glad he agreed to go ahead and go down to get treatment,” Ponder said Thursday. “It would have taken longer” if he had refused, which would have required further court hearings.
A year with TB
Trondle’s first positive TB skin test was at the Tarrant County Public Health Department a year ago, but he never showed up for a complete examination, according to an application for his commitment Ponder filed Monday in state District Judge R.H. Wallace’s court.
His tuberculosis wasn’t diagnosed as contagious until May after he landed in the hospital after being hit by a motor vehicle, court records show.
Trondle last signed a warning letter on May 22 in which he agreed to keep medical appointments, take a cocktail of medicine for at least six months, meet with health care workers, and stay at home.
He did none of those things, public records show.
It wasn’t until Trondle was arrested by Fort Worth police on July 23 — they said he was driving a stolen car and had meth in his possession — that he popped up in the Tarrant County system and public health officials were able to locate him.
The case of drug possession was dropped Wednesday, and Trondle was moved from Tarrant County jail to JPS hospital, according to Trent Loftin, the criminal defense attorney assigned to Trondle.
“I am happy the case has been dismissed, and I am happy he is getting some medical treatment right now,” Loftin said.
The Tarrant County district attorney’s office did not immediately return calls seeking further information about the criminal cases.
If Trondle has insurance, the state will bill his carrier for the cost of his treatment and housing, said Chris Van Deusen, spokesman for the Texas Department of State Services.
If he does not have insurance, treatment will be provided at no charge to him under the state’s TB prevention program, he said.
Monica S. Nagy, 817-390-7792
Tubercolosis information
Tuberculosis (TB) is caused by a bacterium called Mycobacterium tuberculosis. The bacteria usually attack the lungs, but TB bacteria can attack any part of the body such as the kidney, spine, and brain. If not treated properly, TB disease can be fatal.
TB is spread through the air from one person to another. The TB bacteria are put into the air when a person with TB disease of the lungs or throat coughs, sneezes, speaks, or sings. People nearby may breathe in these bacteria and become infected.
TB is not spread by shaking someone's hand, sharing food or drink, touching bed linens or toilet seats, sharing toothbrushes or kissing.
More people are dying of TB today than ever before.
Worldwide, TB kills 8,000 people per day.
TB is the biggest killer of young people and adults in the world today.
One third of the world's population is infected with TB.
If a person is sick with TB that person is likely to infect another 10 to 15 other people in just one year.
TB sends many self-sustaining families into poverty.
Multiple Drug Resistant (MDR) TB is at least 100 times harder to cure than regular TB disease.
MDR TB can develop when patients get the wrong drugs, the drug supply is unreliable or patients stop taking their medicines because they feel better.
Symptoms
Coughing up blood, chest pain, fever, weight loss and more.
Who is at risk
People who are at a higher risk for TB are those with HIV or AIDS, IV drug users, healthcare workers who treat TB and those in contact with people who have it.
For more information: http://www.cdc.gov/tb/topic/basics/default.htm or https://www.dshs.state.tx.us/tcid/faqs.shtm
Source: U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Texas Center for Infectious Disease
This story was originally published July 30, 2015 at 4:44 PM with the headline "Tarrant County sends man with TB to San Antonio."