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Amber Vinson

Nurse gets new ring, new chance at life, after Ebola

Janet St. James
WFAA-TV, Dallas-Fort Worth
Derrick Markray kisses the hand of fiancee Amber Vinson after they selected a replacement engagement ring.

DALLAS — In sickness — and now in health — Amber Vinson and Derrick Markray know love can survive anything, even Ebola.

"I said I'm not going to cry," Markray said, remembering seeing his fiancée for the first time after she was declared Ebola free.

"I'm a man. All these people are around here," he said. "And I just boo-hooed like a baby and just sunk into her shoulders."

Vinson and Markray talked about weathering the Ebola crisis together although they were far apart in an exclusive interview with WFAA-TV, Dallas.

Vinson contracted the virus after caring for the first man in the United States to die of Ebola, Thomas Duncan, as he was treated in the intensive care unit of Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital here.

What followed was not just a fight for life but also a battle to recover personal belongings and her reputation.

Amber Vinson, right, a nurse infected with Ebola after treating a sick patient, gets a hug Nov. 7, 2014, from former President George W. Bush at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital of Dallas.

Vinson received intense public scrutiny after taking a flight to Cleveland, then returning home to Dallas the night before she started showing symptoms of Ebola.

Vinson said she did not have a fever when she boarded that Frontier Airlines flight, yet public perception was that she had put passengers and others at risk.

"I was angry," said Markray, who is very protective of his fiancée, "Kind of like the Incredible Hulk was coming out on me. I wanted to go out and tear stuff up. ... It hurt. But I understand it was fear. I understand it was because no one knew who to trust."

Vinson said the public's reaction hurt her because she's a caring person.

"If I know you, I will try to help. I just feel like I was put out there as a person who would risk so much... so many peoples' families put so many in danger," she said. "And that's not who I am, and that's not what I did."

Not until the following morning when Vinson took her own temperature did she discover that it was mildly elevated. She called the Dallas County health department.

She didn't even give Markray a goodbye kiss.

"I kissed her the night before when I saw her when she came in" after they had both returned from out-of-town trips, he said. "I kissed her, hugged her, laid next to her, rubbed her back, and the next morning she went in."

Vinson said she put the sheets in the washer and told Markray to wipe the washing machine and doorknob down with bleach — which kills Ebola — just in case.

As Vinson was transferred from Texas Health Presbyterian to Emory Hospital in Atlanta, decontamination crews made their way to the Dallas apartment the two shared.

Those crews pulled up carpet, threw away clothes, took off couch cushions, and tossed countless personal items.

"I took off all my jewelry, thinking that my jewelry would be safer at home than in the hospital," Vinson said. "And when the decontamination team came in, everything that was on the surface was swiped into a bin for incineration. My jewelry box being on my nightstand was one of those things that got destroyed."

That was where she had stowed her engagement ring.

Considering that Ebola doesn't live long outside the body and that bleach can kill the virus, both believe the decontamination of their apartment went too far, saying it could simply have been quarantined.

"Certain things could have been cleansed with bleach, like my engagement ring could've been wiped off and saved," Vinson said.

Markray, who had been advised to monitor his own symptoms, said he dreaded telling his fiancée that the ring was gone while she was battling for her life.

"I know for the most part it's small, but to her it was so sentimental," he said. "I didn't want to give her the news and (have) it spiral her down, make it harder for her to fight."

Chris Nieto of Zales jewelers proposed a solution.

"When we heard that Amber Vinson's ring was lost by the clean-up crew, our hearts went out to her," he said. "It was really important that we went ahead and wanted to step up to get her something that helps celebrate her life and express love."

Vinson and her fiancé were invited Tuesday to pick out a new ring, free.

"When I found out that Zales had offerred to give a ring, I was taken aback by the generosity because I've had so much negativity towards me," Vinson said. "For someone to reach out to me with such a positive thing, it put a big smile on my face. ... It made my day."

Even now, Vinson isn't certain about her future.

The Ebola virus causes long-term fatigue, which Vinson battles daily. And she worries about the side-effects of the experimental drug she took to save her life.

"I would like one day to have children, and there is some question whether or not that will be possible because we don't know," she said. "I'm just prayerful and hopeful that that will work out."

Vinson's original engagement ring held great sentimental value. The second one will be a symbol of a new beginning in more ways than one, she said.

"I have my life now," she said, "This ring is a step forward in life."

This combo photo shows eight of the 10 Ebola patients treated in the U.S. since August 2014. Dr. Rick Sacra, top left; Amber Vinson; Nancy Writebol; and Dr. Kent Brantly. Dr. Craig Spencer, bottom left; Ashoka Mukpo; Thomas Eric Duncan; and Nina Pham. Not pictured, a doctor for the World Health Organization who has not been identified and Dr. Martin Salia, who died Nov. 17, 2014.
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