Medic nearly killed by Ebola speaks for first time about anguish of misconduct case
CHIEF REPORTER PAULINE CAFFERKEY, the British nurse who almost died from Ebola, has told for the first time of her ordeal after being accused of misconduct over her return to the UK with the virus.
Miss Cafferkey, in her first newspaper interview, said she was upset to still have an official inquiry hanging over her head, more than 18 months after she returned to Britain.
She is at risk of being struck off by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC). The Scottish nurse contracted Ebola while working at a hospital in Sierra Leone at the height of the crisis.
She flew back to Heathrow in December 2014 with a high temperature. Staff from Public Health England (PHE), in charge of screening for the virus at the airport, took Miss Cafferkey’s temperature six more times before allowing her on to a connecting flight back to her home in Glasgow.
Miss Cafferkey, 40, then fell critically ill and had to be flown back to London for life-saving treatment at the Royal Free Hospital.
She was told after leaving hospital that she was under investigation by the NMC after concerns were passed to them by PHE. The reasons why have never been disclosed. “The report on how they are dealing with my case is still ongoing,” Miss Cafferkey told
“I don’t know why it has not been finished. It’s very stressful. It would be nice to have closure.”
Miss Cafferkey, who said she was unable to talk about the specific allegations made against her while the case is ongoing, spoke to to highlight her support for Street Child, a British charity that helps vulnerable children in west Africa. The charity has launched an appeal to raise funds for 20,000 children affected by Ebola in Sierra Leone and in Liberia.
Miss Cafferkey spent five weeks working in Sierra Leone tending to Ebola patients. She twice came close to death, once from Ebola and later from meningitis triggered by the virus. She is back working but cannot continue her old job of home visits as a community nurse because seizures caused by the meningitis prevent her driving.
“I was in a pretty bad way. I am really happy with how I am now. I couldn’t walk, I was in a wheelchair,” she said. “Now I am just a bit weak. My joints ache, things like that. I feel like I am having my whole life back.”
She said she would like to return to Sierra Leone when she regains full fitness. “I just want to do something positive for the children,” she said.
An NMC spokesman confirmed the misconduct case against Miss Cafferkey is ongoing, adding that they are working with her team “to reach a resolution as quickly as possible that meets the public interest”.