Ebola survivor: ‘We Did Not Get Much Training’

• ‘I get a little tired as the days go on, but I feel good,’ Amber Vinson says
• Vinson contracted Ebola while treating patient Thomas Eric Duncan

Texas nurse Amber Vinson is talking to the media this week after surviving the deadly Ebola virus.

She talked to CNN late Wednesday and the “Today” show on Thursday, defending herself from rampant accusations that she deliberately put the American public at risk when she flew on a plane from Texas to Ohio last month.

Vinson, 29, a nurse at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas, said that she has been particularly perturbed by how media reports characterized that she was starting to show symptoms even before she boarded her flight.

“I’ve read that someone said that I felt ‘weird’ or ‘something wasn’t right,’” she said, adding that the reports were patently false. “I’m a nurse. I have medical terms that I can use to quantify how I was feeling,” she told the “Today” show.

Vinson is one of two Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital health workers to contract Ebola. Nina Pham’s infection was treated and cured at National Institutes of Health’s Clinical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, where she was admitted October 16. Two weeks ago, Pham, 26, got to hug the president.

Meanwhile, Vinson’s diagnosis nearly set off a national panic when it emerged that she entered an Ohio bridal shop to continue to make plans for her wedding. Vinson was later transferred to Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia, for treatment.

She also clarified something that has perplexed the American public as well. “I was never told that I couldn’t travel,” she told “Today.”

It was the travels of Vinson that set off a continuing national debate over the quarantining of health workers — symptoms or not.

Vinson also used Thursday’s interview to throw a jab at her employer, which initially said that the nurses got sufficient training for Ebola prior to Thomas Eric Duncan’s visit, the Liberian national who died from Ebola under hospital care.

“We did not get much training. The first time that I put on the protective equipment I was heading in to take care of the patient [Duncan]. So we didn’t have excessive training where we could don and doff, put on and take off the protective equipment, till we got a level of being comfortable with that. I didn’t have that.”

She also sat down with CNN’s Don Lemon late Wednesday, answering very pointed questions.

Via youtube/cnn.com

Vinson told “Today” that she is doing fine after battling the deadly virus that has ravaged parts of West Africa. “I get a little tired as the days go on, but I feel good.”

Vinson remains befuddled at how she contracted the disease exactly. She told CNN, “I have no idea. I go through it daily in my mind, you know, what happened? What went wrong? Because I was covered completely every time.”

Via youtube/cnn.com

Vinson’s interview comes the same week the New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation reports that the number of people under “active monitoring” for Ebola in New York City had ballooned to 357.

“The vast majority of these individuals are travelers arriving in New York City within the past 21 days from the three Ebola-affected countries who are being monitored post-arrival, as well as Bellevue Hospital staff caring for Dr. [Craig] Spencer,” the corporation said in a statement Wednesday. Spencer contracted the virus while working with Ebola patients in West Africa. He remains in isolation at Bellevue.

Meanwhile, Kaci Hickox, a Doctors Without Borders nurse quarantined in Maine after treating Ebola patients in West Africa, remains free to go where she wants in her community as long as she stays 3 feet away from people. Hickox’s agreement with state health officials expires November 10, the 21st day since she last had contact with an Ebola patient, according to NJ.com.

This article originally was published on HLNtv.com.