Second Ebola Nurse Flew to Cleveland to Prepare for Her Wedding
Published at | Updated at
Akron Public Schools(CLEVELAND) — The Dallas nurse who traveled to Ohio before being diagnosed with Ebola had flown to Cleveland to prepare for her wedding, Cleveland officials said Wednesday.
Amber Vinson, 29, a nurse at the Dallas hospital where an Ebola patient died, was identified Wednesday as the second health care worker at the hospital to contract the deadly disease.
“She flew into Cleveland to prepare for her wedding. She came in to visit her mother and her mother’s fiance,” said Toinette Parrilla, director of Cleveland Department of Public Health.
Vinson stayed at her relatives’ home while visiting Ohio and those relatives are employees of Kent State University, the school said in a statement.
“She did not step foot on our campus,” Kent State President Beverly Warren said in a statement.
Vinson arrived in Cleveland on Friday, Oct. 10, and returned to Dallas on the evening of Monday, Oct. 13. She was diagnosed with a fever, which is considered to be the first symptom of the disease, on Tuesday Oct. 14. She was tested and her diagnosis was confirmed late Tuesday.
The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention addressed the fact that while she was not ordered into protective custody by the time she traveled, he did suggest that it was a mistake for her to do so.
“Because at that point she was in a group of individuals known to have exposure to Ebola, she should not have traveled on a commercial airline,” CDC Director Tom Frieden said Wednesday.
The CDC reiterated, however, that they released her flight data out of an abundance of caution since she would not be contagious until she began showing symptoms.
Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins said Wednesday morning that she was dealing with her diagnosis “with grit and grace.”
Vinson will be transferred from Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital to Emory University Hospital in Atlanta. Emory successfully treated both missionaries who were the first two Americans to be diagnosed with Ebola, Dr. Kent Brantley and nurse Nancy Writebol. They are also treating a third individual, a World Health Organization worker who has never been identified, who was admitted to Emory on Sept. 9.
Follow @ABCNewsRadio
Copyright 2014 ABC News Radio