Amber Vinson hugged Dr. Bruce Ribner after a news conference announcing her released from Emory.(NBC5)
Updated at 1 p.m.:
An upbeat Amber Vinson thanked God, her family and the health-care professionals who treated her as doctors announced the Dallas nurse’s discharge Tuesday from Emory University Hospital.
“I’m so grateful to be well,” said Vinson, beaming as she embraced the Emory officials and staff who stood behind her as she read her statement. Vinson did not take questions and asked that her family’s privacy be respected.
Vinson had been treated for the Ebola virus at the Atlanta hospital since Oct. 15. Her release was announced in a news conference conducted at noon Dallas time.
“We are pleased to announce that Amber Vinson is being discharged from Emory University Hospital,” said Dr. Bruce Ribner, director of the hospital’s Serious Communicable Diseases Unit. “After a rigorous course of treatment and thorough testing, we have determined that Ms. Vinson has recovered from the Ebola virus and can return to her family without any concern about transmitting the virus to any other person.”
Ribner praised the American health-care system for its response to the crisis and thanked the staff of Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital, where Vinson works, for their role in her initial care.
“We have been privileged to care for one of the members of their team,” he said. “We are pleased with Ms. Vinson’s recovery and grateful for our opportunity to apply our training toward meeting her medical needs.”
The Dallas hospital where Vinson worked with fellow nurse and Ebola patient Nina Pham also put out a statement praising their selflessness in treating Thomas Eric Duncan, the Liberian national who became the first person diagnosed with Ebola in the U.S.
“Amber and her fellow caregiver, Nina Pham, are an inspiration for healthcare workers nationwide, and we at Texas Health Dallas could not be more proud of them,” the statement said.
Both Vinson and Pham recovered quickly from the disease, a welcome surprise that hospital officials could not quite explain. Ribner said their relatively young age – both nurses are in their 20s – may have played a role. “We know from a lot of data in Africa that younger patients tend to do better,” he said.
Vinson was also wearing protective equipment when she treated Thomas Eric Duncan, the Liberian national who became the first person diagnosed with Ebola in the U.S., “so it’s possible that the amount of virus she was exposed to was less,” he said.
Ribner recognized that public fears about the deadly virus continue.
“It’s critically important that we reassure the American people that we are taking measures to prevent future exposure,” he said. “But the thing we really have to keep in mind is that the only way we are truly going to keep citizens safe is to control the outbreak in Africa.”
Original post (by Matt Peterson):
A second Dallas nurse who has recovered from the Ebola virus will be released today from Emory University Hospital in Atlanta.
Amber Vinson was declared Ebola-free on Friday, the same day her colleague Nina Pham was released from isolation at the National Institutes of Health Clinical Center in Maryland.
Emory health officials will hold a news conference at noon Dallas time, and Vinson is expected to make a statement upon her release. Check back here this afternoon to watch it live.
Both Vinson and Pham were infected with the deadly virus while treating Thomas Eric Duncan at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas. The Liberian national, who became the first Ebola case diagnosed in the U.S., died Oct. 8 at the hospital.
Vinson, 29, has been treated in isolation at the Atlanta hospital since Oct. 15, when she was transferred by air ambulance from Dallas to Emory. It’s unclear whether she will return to Dallas-Fort Worth, as Pham did, or reunite with her family in Ohio.
Vinson’s case, the third Ebola diagnosis in the U.S., caused a panic when she traveled on a commercial flight from Cleveland to Dallas after she first developed a low-grade fever. She cleared the trip with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, but officials have said that was a mistake.
Once in Dallas, she was rushed into an isolation unit at Presbyterian, where her treatment began.