Diary Prequel Package — page 395
of 465 pages
← p.394 p.396 → · this page in the original PDF · package
the Clinical Research Center. It was a beautiful fall day, crisp air and 60° and sunny. At
12:30 PM, I walked out of the Clinical Center with my arm around
and
accompanied by her sister Kathy and her mother Diana. Also, accompanying us was Dr.
Francis Collins, Dr. Cliff Lane, Dr. Richard Davey, and the nurses and technicians from
the Special Clinical Studies Unit of the NIH Clinical Center. Francis introduced me and I
announced to the world that
was Ebola free. I gave a shout-out to the physicians and
nurses at Texas Presbyterian for taking such good care of her while she was there patient,
and I thanked our own staff of doctors and nurses for also taking extraordinary care of
I have come to become very fond of
as she is such a sweet human being who
was so brave in taking care of the patient with a deadly disease caused by an infection she
contracted while taking care of him (
). Over the past couple of days
while she was in the Unit, we would talk a lot about how she wants to exit the hospital
and she finally decided that she would give a very brief statement that we would help her
craft. She would give her own ideas and we would put it in prose for her. It worked out
very well. They were in essence her own words and they were heartfelt. As I called her
up to the podium, I gave her a warm embrace in front of all the cameras. This embrace
was ultimately on the front page of the Washington Post the next day (Saturday, Oct. 25),
and on hundreds of newspapers, blogs, and Tweets and other social media. It went
completely "viral". In addition, she gave me a ribbon of the colors of the nursing school
from which she graduated, Texas Christian University School of Nursing. And so I gave
a shout out to all the nurses of the world as personified by the nurses at Texas Christian.
I answered a bunch of questions from the press after the press conference.
And then following the press conference something extraordinary also happened.
President Obama invited
, and I(together with
Rick Davey and Cliff Lane) to the White House for a photo shoot as well as to talk and
chat with the President. The President was charming as usual, and gave her a public hug
in front of his photographers. We met for several minutes in the Oval Office with the
President and Sylvia Burwell. Then Ronny Jackson, the President's physician showed us
around the White House and gave us a tour of the medical clinics in the White House.
The White House transportation group picked us up at the Clinical Center, drove us to the
White House, and then drove
her mother, his sister to a private plane in Baltimore
which flew her to her mother's home in Fort Worth, TX. It was a bittersweet goodbye
since we have become so fond of her and her family. I gave
and her family my
contact information including my cell phone number and told her to make sure if there
was any issues that they want to talk to me about that I am available to them 24 hours a
day.
I returned to the NIH completely exhausted but ready to get back to work of crafting
policies related to the emerging situation with healthcare workers returning from West
Africa infected as did Craig Spencer last night.
Oct. 25, 2014 - An important meeting today Situation Room of White House. We
discussed the topic of what the movement and monitoring protocol would be for the
United States Government regarding HCWs who are returning from service in the 3
African countries. . The CDC has been changing their guide old journals and in a 27 June
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Records on this page
| Record | Date | Type | Pages |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oct. 24, 2014 - Today was an extraordinary day in the history of NIH. We discharged our | 2014-10-24 | diary entry | 394–395 |
| Oct. 25, 2014 - An important meeting today Situation Room of White House. We | 2014-10-25 | diary entry | 395–397 |