Texas Nurse Gives Account Of Her “Ebola” Detainment In New Jersey
A Texas nurse is the first person to be placed in a mandatory quarantined despite having tested negative for the Ebola virus.
33-year-old Kaci Hickox gave a first person account about how she was treated after she arrived at Newark Airport upon her return from Sierra Leone. In a Dallas Morning News column, she said she didn’t wish her kind of treatment on anyone else and scared for others who would be returning after her.
Hickox said she’s worried how healthcare workers are going to be treated at airports after they’ve said they’ve been in West Africa, fighting Ebola. They’re bound to see, like me, that the a disorganized, frightening quarantine.
Hickox was on her way to the U.S. when both governors of New Jersey and New York ordered the 21-day quarantine for all passengers who traveled from West Africa and were in contact with Ebola patients.
She said she was tired after the two-day journey but felt fine otherwise when arriving into Newark around 1 p.m. on Friday. Hickox said she told an immigration official where she was returning from. She said the official said she was fine and would probably be subjected to several questions.
Upon being escorted to a quarantine room, various people using protective suits and face shields started to interrogate her like a crime suspect. Hickox said the interrogators didn’t seem prepared including a possible immigration officer who kept asking her questions like she was a criminal.
Hickox said she had her temperature taken with the forehead scanner, which read 98 degree. After this, she waited three hours to hear something. She said it seemed like nobody was in charge or could tell her what was going to happen to her.
Hickox said she got hungry and thirsty, and when she asked for something to drink and eat, she was only given a little bit of water and some granola. She was left to wonder what she had done wrong.
Another official came in to take her temperature, which had climbed to 101. However, Hickox said she thought the higher temperature was due to being upset and flushed, and asked that the oral thermometer be used due to its better accuracy.
Another three hours passed before she was transported to University Hospital in Newark, surrounded by eight police cars with flashing lights and blaring sirens.
Hickox entered a tent put up outside the building, where doctors took her temperature this time with an oral thermometer. It read 98.6. The doctors, she said, were confused, saying they were told she had a temperature.
She had a blood test, which came back negative for Ebola.
Hickox said she’s worried many others will come back to America and be faced with the same issue as she. She’s worried they’re going to feel like criminals and prisoners.
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