THERE is shock in Donegal this afternoon at the news that a nurse with strong links to the county is to face disciplinary charges after fighting off the deadly effects of the Ebola virus.
Pauline Cafferkey, a cousin of of hero Ireland goalkeeper Packie Bonner, is to face misconduct charges on over claims she concealed her temperature at an Ebola screening on her return to the UK.
The 40-year-old, whose family comes from Donegal, was infected with the virus while at a treatment centre in Sierra Leone in 2014.
Pauline, who works as a nurse in Scotland, is alleged to have given dishonest answers to medical staff when she returned to Heathrow airport.
The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) in the UK has been investigating Ms Cafferkey’s conduct.
The council alleges that she “allowed an incorrect temperature to be recorded” on 29 December 2014 and intended to conceal from Public Health England staff that she had a temperature higher than 38C.
Registered NHS nurse Ms Cafferkey travelled to the West African country at the height of the Ebola crisis to help the sick.
She returned to London and then travelled on to Scotland before being diagnosed, and spent almost a month being treated in an isolation unit at London’s Royal Free Hospital.
Ms Cafferkey recovered but was readmitted to hospital on two separate occasions after suffering complications linked to the disease, and at one stage fell critically ill.
But she returned to work as a nurse at the Blantyre Health Centre in South Lanarkshire, where she had been employed before volunteering to go to Sierra Leone with the Save the Children charity.
She described at the time how she was “very happy to be alive” and was looking forward to returning to a “normal life”.
However, in the months that followed her health suffered as she had issues with her thyroid, her hair fell out and she had headaches and pains in her joints.
But Ms Cafferkey stressed that she felt lucky because she had not lost her sight as others had done.
In March of last year the NMC began investigating her conduct and she was summoned for a preliminary hearing in Edinburgh.
She was not told the charges against her at that time, but they were thought to centre on allegations that she was unwell before she began her journey and her symptoms were obscured.
The NMC has now released the full charges, which allege Ms Cafferkey did not tell Public Health England screening staff who took her temperature at the airport that she had recently taken paracetamol.
She is also said to have left the area without reporting her true temperature.
A hearing on Ms Cafferkey’s fitness to practise is set to take place in Edinburgh next month. received further evidence.
“Ms Cafferkey and her representatives have cooperated fully throughout this process. Currently we are working towards scheduling the case for a panel to consider on September 13,” said the NMC.
Tags: