“Teresa is desperate to be discharged from hospital”

Spanish nursing assistant Teresa Romero was released from isolation at Carlos III Hospital in Madrid on Sunday, after having overcome Ebola.

Romero had contracted the virus after treating Spanish missionary Manuel García Viejo, who had been repatriated to Spain from West Africa.

“She is doing very well,” her brother José Ramón Romero told the press outside the hospital on Sunday. “She’s just perfect.”

According to her brother, Romero is very keen to be discharged from the hospital, after having spent nearly a month there after her initial diagnosis on October 6. “She’s doing great, but she’s desperate to get out of there,” a member of the medical team at the center told EL PAÍS.

When she is finally discharged from hospital, she is due to travel to her home village Becerreá, in Lugo, to visit her mother, she has told her colleagues at Carlos III. She wants to be there to “recover,” her brother added.

It is still not known when she will be discharged, but health sources have explained that the problems that caused her breathing difficulties are practically cured.

Romero received a number of visitors on Sunday, including friends and family, as well as staff from Carlos III who wanted to come and see her on their day off. Many were keen to give their colleague a hug, now that she is finally out of the isolation room in which she spent nearly the whole of October.

One of the first things Romero did on Sunday when it was confirmed that her bodily fluids were free of the Ebola virus was to pose for a picture with her husband, Javier Limón, and the team that took care of her. “It was a day of lots of emotions, with everyone giving her hugs,” a staff member explained.

The nursing assistant will remain under observation in a standard hospital room until she is discharged. She is currently the only Ebola-related patient in Carlos III, given that those who had come into contact with her while she was contagious have now been given the all-clear and were discharged.