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Inside World : Ebola nurse leaves hospital, mourns dog
MADRID (AP) — A Spanish nursing assistant who recovered from Ebola credited health care workers with saving her life and offered Wednesday to donate blood to help cure others.
Still, Teresa Romero slammed Spanish officials for killing her beloved dog, saying the mixed breed named Excalibur was unnecessarily "executed." The 44-year-old Romero issued a statement as she was released from Madrid's Carlos III hospital after spending 30 days there, most of it in quarantine.
Her husband, Javier Limon, read Romero's remarks about Excalibur as she listened at his side, saying his wife was too emotional to talk about the dog that was like the childless couple's own child. Madrid health officials euthanized Excalibur on Oct. 8, saying the dog posed a potential public health risk for Ebola transmission. But the dog of a nurse who got Ebola in Dallas was simply quarantined and then later reunited with its owner.
Killing Excalibur "wasn't necessary," Romero said in her statement. "The worst part of all of this is that our dog was not given a chance." Romero said she still feels weak but praised her treatment team, hoped her recovery could help doctors figure out a cure for Ebola and offered to donate blood. Plasma from an Ebola survivor was among the treatments she received.
"If my blood works to cure people, I'm ready to give it to the last drop," she said. Doctors said Romero, who was critically ill for about a week, received various treatments and they were unable to say what ultimately worked.
Romero helped treat two Spanish missionaries who died of Ebola in August and September after they were flown back from West Africa. Doctors have said Romero told them she might have become infected by touching a protective glove to her face. But Romero said she did not "know what went wrong, or if anything went wrong."
Photo: AP Teresa Romero, center, posing for a photo with medical workers and friends after leaving the isolation unit in the Carlos III hospital in Madrid, Spain. Hospital officials say a Spanish nursing assistant who recovered from an Ebola virus infection has left the isolation unit where she was being monitored and moved to a normal room. Teresa Romero tested positive on Oct 6, but was declared cured of the virus 15 days later. She was the first known person to contract the disease outside of West Africa in the latest outbreak. Madrid’s Carlos III hospital said Saturday that Romero, 44, was now being attended by hospital staff that no longer needed to wear protective outfits.
Photo: AP Teresa Romero, third right, celebrates sitting on a wheelchair with medical workers in the Carlos III hospital in Madrid, Spain, Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2014. A Spanish nursing assistant who recovered from Ebola has been discharged from a Madrid hospital a month after she was admitted with the virus. She was the first person known to have contracted the disease outside of West Africa in the latest outbreak. Hospital doctors said Romero, 44, received various treatments, including blood plasma from an Ebola survivor, but were unable to say if any had been effective. Romero had treated two Spanish missionaries who died of Ebola in August and September after they were flown back from West Africa. Doctors said she will be able to live a normal life and poses no contamination risk.
