Kaci Hickox returned to
the United States on Friday after treating Ebola patients in Sierra
Leone through Doctors Without Borders. When she shared where she had
been with airport officials, Hickox said she was held in a quarantine
office for more than six hours and given no explanations. She is now
being held in isolation at University Hospital in Newark, and tested
negative for the virus on Saturday, according to health officials.
"I am scared about how health care workers will be treated at airports when they declare that they have been fighting Ebola in West Africa," Hickox writes in a first-person story for The Dallas Morning News. "I am scared that, like me, they will arrive and see a frenzy of disorganization, fear and, most frightening, quarantine."
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie announced mandatory quarantines of up to 21 days for medical personnel and any others who returned to the United States after direct contact with Ebola-infected individuals in Liberia, Sierra Leone or Guinea. The three countries in West Africa have been hardest-hit by the outbreak of Ebola.
Hickox arrived at Newark Liberty International Airport at 1 p.m. after what she describes as a "grueling two-day journey from Sierra Leone."
"I walked up to the immigration official at the airport and was greeted with a big smile and a 'hello,'" Hickox writes. "I told him that I have traveled from Sierra Leone and he replied, a little less enthusiastically: 'No problem. They are probably going to ask you a few questions.'"
However, what followed was hours of interrogation, Hickox says. She was put in an office and told to sit down as several people — including representatives from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — questioned her about her time in Sierra Leone.
"Everyone that came out of the offices was hurrying from room to room in white protective coveralls, gloves, masks and a disposable face shield," Hickox writes. "One after another, people asked me questions. Some introduced themselves, some didn't. One man who must have been an immigration officer because he was wearing a weapon belt that I could see protruding from his white coveralls barked questions at me as if I was a criminal."
Hickox said her temperature was taken and that it came back as 98 degrees. Though no one would tell her what was going on, she called her family to tell them she was OK. She also managed to get a granola bar and some water from airport officials. But, she was still hungry and tired and eventually her face became flushed.
"Four hours after I landed at the airport, an official
approached me with a forehead scanner," Hickox writes. "My cheeks were
flushed, I was upset at being held with no explanation. The scanner
recorded my temperature as 101. The female officer looked smug. 'You
have a fever now,' she said. I explained that an oral thermometer
would be more accurate and that the forehead scanner was recording an
elevated temperature because I was flushed and upset."
But instead of getting an oral thermometer, airport officials left her in the room for another three hours, Hickox writes. Then, she was taken to University Hospital in Newark.
"Eight police cars escorted me to the University Hospital in Newark," Hickox writes. "Sirens blared, lights flashed. Again, I wondered what I had done wrong. I had spent a month watching children die, alone. I had witnessed human tragedy unfold before my eyes. I had tried to help when much of the world has looked on and done nothing."
Hickox said infectious disease and emergency department doctors took her temperature at the hospital and it read 98.6 degrees. She was told she didn't have a fever and that her face was just flushed. Her blood later tested negative for Ebola.
Still, she remains at the hospital, writing.
"I recalled my last night at the Ebola management center in Sierra Leone," she said in the piece published Saturday. "I was called in at midnight because a 10-year-old girl was having seizures. I coaxed crushed tablets of Tylenol and an anti-seizure medicine into her mouth as her body jolted in the bed. It was the hardest night of my life. I watched a young girl die in a tent, away from her family."
From USATODAY.COM
"I am scared about how health care workers will be treated at airports when they declare that they have been fighting Ebola in West Africa," Hickox writes in a first-person story for The Dallas Morning News. "I am scared that, like me, they will arrive and see a frenzy of disorganization, fear and, most frightening, quarantine."
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie announced mandatory quarantines of up to 21 days for medical personnel and any others who returned to the United States after direct contact with Ebola-infected individuals in Liberia, Sierra Leone or Guinea. The three countries in West Africa have been hardest-hit by the outbreak of Ebola.
Hickox arrived at Newark Liberty International Airport at 1 p.m. after what she describes as a "grueling two-day journey from Sierra Leone."
"I walked up to the immigration official at the airport and was greeted with a big smile and a 'hello,'" Hickox writes. "I told him that I have traveled from Sierra Leone and he replied, a little less enthusiastically: 'No problem. They are probably going to ask you a few questions.'"
However, what followed was hours of interrogation, Hickox says. She was put in an office and told to sit down as several people — including representatives from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — questioned her about her time in Sierra Leone.
"Everyone that came out of the offices was hurrying from room to room in white protective coveralls, gloves, masks and a disposable face shield," Hickox writes. "One after another, people asked me questions. Some introduced themselves, some didn't. One man who must have been an immigration officer because he was wearing a weapon belt that I could see protruding from his white coveralls barked questions at me as if I was a criminal."
Hickox said her temperature was taken and that it came back as 98 degrees. Though no one would tell her what was going on, she called her family to tell them she was OK. She also managed to get a granola bar and some water from airport officials. But, she was still hungry and tired and eventually her face became flushed.
But instead of getting an oral thermometer, airport officials left her in the room for another three hours, Hickox writes. Then, she was taken to University Hospital in Newark.
"Eight police cars escorted me to the University Hospital in Newark," Hickox writes. "Sirens blared, lights flashed. Again, I wondered what I had done wrong. I had spent a month watching children die, alone. I had witnessed human tragedy unfold before my eyes. I had tried to help when much of the world has looked on and done nothing."
Hickox said infectious disease and emergency department doctors took her temperature at the hospital and it read 98.6 degrees. She was told she didn't have a fever and that her face was just flushed. Her blood later tested negative for Ebola.
Still, she remains at the hospital, writing.
"I recalled my last night at the Ebola management center in Sierra Leone," she said in the piece published Saturday. "I was called in at midnight because a 10-year-old girl was having seizures. I coaxed crushed tablets of Tylenol and an anti-seizure medicine into her mouth as her body jolted in the bed. It was the hardest night of my life. I watched a young girl die in a tent, away from her family."
Now, Hickox is hoping her story will inspire people to think more about how volunteer health workers are treated.
"We
need more health care workers to help fight the epidemic in West
Africa," she writes. "The U.S. must treat returning health care workers
with dignity and humanity."
From USATODAY.COM
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