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Doctor admits misleading medics over Pauline Cafferkey temperature

"Trying to help PHE staff with the process, they agreed to take and record their own temperatures. Ryan took Cafferkey’s temperature, which was 38.2C – a warning sign for the Ebola virus.

The two medics and another nurse with them, Donna Wood, discussed the reading, “during which someone said, ‘Let’s get out of here’,” Coxhill told the tribunal.

Cafferkey’s temperature was then recorded as 37.2C, the form was passed to PHE staff and the medics went on their way.

However, in baggage reclaim there was further discussion between the medics, and PHE staff were contacted.

When Cafferkey’s temperature was taken again it was below the threshold. However, by this time she had taken paracetamol, which lowers body temperature. Cafferkey returned to Glasgow but the next day fell seriously ill with Ebola.

Four days later, Dr Nick Gent, from PHE, called Ryan to investigate what had happened at the airport. Ryan later admitted not telling him she had taken Cafferkey’s temperature and that it was above the threshold for possible Ebola infection."


Ebola nurse Pauline Cafferkey cleared of misconduct

Panel says volunteer did not intentionally set out to mislead health officials about her temperature on return to UK

An agreed statement of fact described how each person was given a port of entry Ebola health assessment form, on which medical staff were meant to record their temperature and other relevant information. As the delays continued and frustrations grew, one member of Cafferkey’s group suggested they take their own temperatures.

Doctor 1, took Cafferkey’s temperature twice and found it to be 38.2C, then 38.3C.

Doctor 1 stated that she read out both numbers in the presence of Cafferkey and Registrant A, another member of the group, who said she would record the nurse’s temperature as 37.2C and then they would “get out of here and sort it out”. Any temperature above 37.5C was considered to be elevated and should have been reported to a consultant for further assessment, but Cafferkey left the screening area without alerting a member of PHE staff.

She then returned to the screening area where her temperature was taken three times by Doctor 2. Only one reading was above 37.5C, and that was by 0.1C.

She was cleared to travel home to Glasgow.

The following day she was diagnosed with Ebola, with one of the highest viral loads ever recorded.


Kerry Town Ebola treatment centre in 2014 - EPA photo

Scots nurse Pauline Cafferkey is in a "stable" condition in a London hospital after being admitted for a third time since contracting Ebola.

The 40-year-old from South Lanarkshire was flown south after being admitted to Glasgow's Queen Elizabeth Hospital.

She was put on an RAF Hercules aircraft which took her to London where she was taken to the Royal Free Hospital. Ms Cafferkey was treated there twice in 2015 after contracting Ebola in Sierra Leone the previous year.

A spokesman for the Royal Free said she had been transferred to the hospital "due to a late complication from her previous infection by the Ebola virus".

The nurse, from Halfway, Cambuslang, contracted the virus while working as part of a British team at the Kerry Town Ebola treatment centre.

She spent almost a month in isolation at the Royal Free at the beginning of 2015 after the virus was detected when she arrived back in the UK.

Ms Cafferkey was later discharged after apparently making a full recovery, and in March 2015 returned to work as a public health nurse at Blantyre Health Centre in South Lanarkshire.

In October last year it was discovered that Ebola was still present in her body, with health officials later confirming she had been diagnosed with meningitis caused by the virus.

Ms Cafferkey worked at Kerry Town Ebola treatment centre in 2014