I'm a nurse and I've possibly been exposed to Ebola and I think I maybe should be quarantined

[Sweet Freedom]

159. The settings are not equal.

Within the hospital setting, she wore gloves and other protective gear, not only for her protection, but for her patients as well. Should she have experienced the sudden onset of symptoms while at work or even at home, she could have easily and quickly been placed in isolation.

On a plane, she isn't wearing any protective gear and should she experience the sudden onset of symptoms, she's not in a controlled hospital environment and cannot easily be isolated from the other passengers. Also, unlike the hospital setting, no one on the plane was aware of her exposure to Ebola or trained in its care. Had she become injured or incapacitated while symptomatic, those coming to her aid would not have donned protective gear as they would in a hospital setting.

The problem is the plane itself. It's not a hospital where you can just walk into the ER, or a car where you can just pull over and call for an ambulance and have medical personnel render aid and transport you to a hospital in a short amount of time. It's a plane that needs to make an unscheduled landing at an airport. And during the time when the pilot contacts the nearest airport, flies to it, descends and is cleared to land, the patient cannot be quickly and appropriately isolated from 100+ passengers and an untrained crew.

But it's a moot point because she cannot undo her decision and now those who have been exposed to Ebola cannot travel. Let's just hope that going forward, everyone is now more educated because of this incident and makes better common-sense decisions that benefit the greater good, whether another person tells them to or not.