11/02/2014

Ebola: What about Thomas Duncan's Fiancee?

Here's what I don't get, Dear Reader.  It was just a couple of months ago that a couple planned on reuniting in Dallas, Texas, where they would watch their son graduate from college and where they would marry.

The man traveled to Dallas from West Africa and for those first four days after his arrival, things must have been very exciting and joyful.  Family was reunited. Plans for the future were being made.

You know there was lots of hugs and kisses.  Lots of food and drink.  People coming over to visit.  Music. Laughter.

Of course, we know that at some point during those first four days, Thomas Duncan starting feeling ill.  So much so, that his family took him to the Emergency Room at Texas Presbyterian Hospital for help.

We know that he was treated there and sent back home, where he spent another four days before returning to the hospital.  At that point, on September 28, he was admitted and soon thereafter, we all knew who Mr. Duncan was and that he had been diagnosed with Ebola.

And the news juggernaut began....

But here's my question.  What about his Thomas Duncan's fiancee?  


You can't tell me that this woman wasn't right there by the side of her man, taking care of him until he was taken from her and quarantined.  You love this man, you're going to marry him, he's just traveled halfway around the world to begin a New Life with you, and he's sick with what looks like the flu?

I'm thinking she was nursing him 24/7.  Without a Hazmat suit.

I'm envisioning her dealing with vomit and mucus and all that nasty stuff that comes with someone being sick. I'm picturing her collecting the used tissues from around the bed; I'm thinking about her kissing his cheek while he slept.  (She has confirmed to the media that the couple was intimate before he started feeling bad, too.)

After all, her job is being a nursing assistant at a nursing home.  Sure, she was taking care of him.


And she never got sick.  LOUISE TROH NEVER GOT SICK. 


Shouldn't this be a message of hope for all of us?  Shouldn't she be an example to all of us that being exposed to the Ebola virus does not guarantee infection?  

Last I heard, she was being denied a place to rent by people still terrified of catching Ebola.  Wow.

My sincerest condolences to this woman.  I hope she writes a book.  I'll read it.