When you’ve been left with almost nothing, an apology can mean everything.
Louise Troh said an executive with Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas called her Thursday. The official said he was “deeply sorry” for the death of Troh’s fiancé Thomas Eric Duncan, whose Ebola infection the hospital first misdiagnosed, then failed to contain.
Troh took the call in someone else’s gated house, where she has been quarantined since health officials sterilized her apartment and burned her belongings two weeks ago. She mourns Duncan in isolation, and it’s unclear where she will live when she is released in a few days.
And yet “she was jubilant” after the phone call, said Troh’s pastor, George Mason.
“I am grateful to God that this leader reached out and took responsibility for the hospital’s actions,” Troh said in a statement. “Hearing this information will help me as I mourn Eric’s death.”
The call came on the same day that a top official over Presbyterian apologized during a congressional hearing for bungling the first Ebola outbreak in the U.S. The hospital sent Duncan home to stay with Troh while he was contagious. He died at the hospital after returning and two of its nurses now have the disease.
While some wonder if Duncan’s family will sue the hospital, Troh stayed focused on higher matters.
“God is the judge of others and their actions, and vengeance is not mine to demand,” she wrote.
