Ebola nurse: 'Preposterous' she hid Pauline Cafferkey temperature
- Published
Donna Wood faces misconduct charges before a panel at the Nursing and Midwifery Council
A nurse who volunteered to fight Ebola in Africa has denied claims she falsified the temperature of her infected colleague Pauline Cafferkey.
Donna Wood, who denies misconduct, told a Nursing and Midwifery Council panel it was "preposterous" to say she hid the Scottish nurse's high temperature.
The pair were tested for the virus on their arrival at Heathrow Airport in London from Sierra Leone in 2014.
Ms Cafferkey was allowed to go but was diagnosed with Ebola the following day.
Senior sister Ms Wood is accused of writing down a temperature of 37.2C for Ms Cafferkey, after a doctor, Hannah Ryan, had taken two readings of 38.2C and 38.3C.
Only temperatures above 37.5C require further assessment, the council tribunal, which is in its fourth day of deliberations, heard.
Ms Wood, who had spent Christmas 2014 in Ebola-hit Sierra Leone, said a young doctor at the Public Health England screening centre at Heathrow appeared"frantic" and "out of her depth", which is why the group decided to take each other's temperatures.
She said: "If I had been aware of anybody having a temperature... it would be like a red alert in my mind."
Ms Wood, one of the first group of NHS medics to travel to West Africa, faces being struck off if the panel finds her guilty of misconduct.
'Get out of here'
Ms Wood said she could not recall writing down the temperature, which she "absolutely disputes" falsifying. "I had no alarm bells ringing," she said.
She denies the version of events presented to the tribunal by the NMC's Aja Hall earlier this week.
On Monday, Ms Hall accused Ms Wood of telling Dr Ryan that the temperature readings were "artificial", since Ms Cafferkey had said she felt warm on the plane.
"Donna Wood broke the inertia by saying, 'I'm just going to write it down as 37.2C and then we will get out of here and sort it out,'" Ms Hall said.
Pauline Cafferkey was flown to London for treatment at the Royal Free Hospital after contracting Ebola
It comes after the NMC cleared Ms Cafferkey herself of misconduct over claims she hid her infection, when the panel ruled that her judgement had been impaired by her illness.
Ms Wood's lawyer, Ben Rich, suggests Dr Ryan's memory of events is "highly flawed" since she said she could not remember whether she had read Ms Cafferkey's temperature out loud to Ms Wood or shown her the thermometer.
"It would be preposterous to even contemplate that I would allow myself to be put in danger, or someone else, or my family or my country," Ms Wood said.
- Published13 September 2016
