Ebola nurse

Pollygran you don't catch Ebola from hugging someone my understanding is that it is bodily fluids and you don't pass them on in a hug so please stop passing rumours around some people will believe you

Pollengran I live not far from East Kilbride and no one I kno wdislikes her or has complained about her visiting a school she was invited to visit.Ms Cafferky deserves nothing but admiration for her work and the fact that the health authority in ENGLAND let her down by not checking her properly is not her fault.In fact if I were she I'd sue them...she could easily have died becasue of their neglect

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I'm saddened to hear that she's been re-admitted to hospital - her illness seems to lie low then reappear.

There's no way of knowing whether or not she deliberately hid her high temperature. My feeling is that after an exhausting and distressing stint treating patients with Ebola and seeing many of them die, and then a 22 hour flight home, there is every chance that she felt disorientated. I really don't think it is likely that a person who put herself at significant risk to go half way across the world to help other people would then deliberately put the population of this country in danger.

I think the health checks on medical and other staff returning from working in infected areas of the world should have been far more rigorous - conducted over a period of hours during which temperature and other health checks were carried out by more than more practitioner.

I said presume because I do not have the full facts.

Presumably you do pollengran so peraps I presumed wrong.

You use the words "presume" a lot Jalima, but the children did hug her. She is not a bad person but the parents really did not have a choice at the time. She had Meningitis when she met them, which is highly contagious.

You also use the word "should" and "gossipmongers, but some of the parents felt they would would be singled out if they objected.

They would have been.

She should not have exposed herself to little children until she was sure that she was clear of Ebola

I presume she did not have physical contact with the children so the fears were groundless. She had an unusual late complication as a result of the virus and it had been assumed that she was free of the virus.

www.nhs.uk/Conditions/ebola-virus/Pages/how-it-spreads.aspx

Presumably she was invited in to the schools, she didn't force her way in; the parents should have been informed beforehand by the head teacher.

Ignorance breeds fear, however, it was reported that no parent made a complaint so presumably it is just the gossipmongers who dislike her.

I am at a loss on this one - she is a dedicated nurse and much to be admired for taking the risk of going to care for people with ebola.

But it is precisely the knowledge that she would have derived from that selfless act that would make her fully aware of the dangers of not going through the proper processes on her return to the UK. We can only conclude that there was some failure in the system - faced with a woman who had been in direct nursing contact with victims I cannot help thinking that the rules for immigration screening should have insisted on such a person being quarantined - infected until proven otherwise. Just taking temps seems a bit weedy to me.

Goodness me, I can't believe the attitude of some people towards this poor woman. As janeaisworth posted yesterday -

It's transmitted through contact with body fluids and spread in rural Africa because of the lack of sanitation and local burial practices.

And I really don't understand the comparison with Terence Higgins...

Much of the dislke of Pauline Cafferkey in Scotland (I have a relative up in East Kilbride Scotland) is that she visited Primary schools without the parents permission.

She should not have exposed herself to little children until she was sure that she was clear of Ebola. She was NOT clear of it.

Having worked with Ebola, she knew how contagious it was, but she still (and still does) see herself as blameless.

I expect now she is cleared by the medical council she will become Dame Pauline Cafferkey.

It reminds me of poor Terrence Higgins. He didn't care about his illness either.

There is NO empathy within the nursing profession any more.its become a 'who can we blame'

I agree, it was blame shifting!
Sadly in my opinion the NMC should have looked at this case and decided that the nurse in question was not at fault,and common sense applied.

Well said, Craftycat! I can't believe some of the bitchy comments made on this forum regarding Pauline Cafferkey, a brave, committed health worker. I would not have been brave enough to volunteer to do what she did in working with Ebola victims. I'm sure she saved lived at great risk to her own, as well as seeing terrible things. GB should be giving her a medal. How about Dame Pauline?

Carolpaint she was exonerated of all charges- she did not receive a warning.

It was right that she was investigated, no one should apologise for doing so. It is serious what could have happened and will be so for the rest of her life, excellent that after what is a warning she can carry on nursing.

I believe her temperature was taken seven times it was never her responsibility. I think someone is butt covering

I agree mumofmadboys. Pauline has been exonerated of any wrong doing, and we should be admiring her for the dedicated and caring professional she so clearly is, not nit-picking about the decision made by the official panel.

The world could do with a few more Pauline Cafferkeys!

I agree with crafticat. If anyone should have been prosecuted it should have been whoever originally suggested ignoring the temperature, as Pauline was already confused at that time. To have her struck off would have deprived us of a dedicated and capable nurse.

I don't think she should have been prosecuted. We all take a paracetamol if we feel a bit low & she must have been totally exhausted at the time. There is no way she would have gone up to Scotland knowing the only centre was in London if she suspected she had the disease.
A very brave woman & I hope her condition continues to improve & she has no more scares.

I don't think empathy in the caring professions has diminished shiddles.
What has happened here is that the Nursing and Midwifery Council responded to a concern raised by Public Health England by arraigning Pauline Cafferkey. Perhaps if the NMC had carried out a proper investigation they would not have gone on to charge her with misconduct.
In the wake of Harold Shipman, mid-Staffs and other scandals, it is the regulators of the caring professionals who are taking a hard line and lacking empathy and compassion, not the health professionals themselves. Because of public outrage over various things that have happened, the regulators have to be perceived to be 'doing something' even if this means an innocent nurse or doctor is put through hell waiting for months or even years to appear before them.

Being ill does not make one an effective decision maker. Quite the reverse in fact. When we are ill we need someone responsible and professional to take over and make decisions on our behalf. It's also worth remembering that we are not in full possession of the facts, the press are notoriously unreliable with truth and there are an awful lot of much worse cover ups going on in much higher places and it might be a more cost effective use of resources to investigate those rather than one sick individual whose only crime may have been to make less than perfect decisions whilst sick.

This woman should have never of gone through this, utter ridiculousness. Not even an apology. Empathy in the caring professions has declined.

Quite so janea
If they were this inept over something as potentially serious as ebola - which was a known possibility in this case - how useless are they in an other circumstances?