Dallas Nurse Who Survived Ebola Given Brand New Engagement Ring
The Dallas, Texas nurse who was recently cured of Ebola was given a new engagement ring after her old one was destroyed during quarantine.
Amber Vinson, who was forced to undergo quarantine after contracting Ebola last month, was awarded a brand-new engagement ring by Zales jewelry store after hers was destroyed in the quarantine process. Vinson contracted the deadly disease while treating Liberian patient Thomas Eric Duncan at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital.
"When I found out that Zales had offered to give a ring, I was taken aback by the generosity because I've had so much negativity towards me," Vinson told the local media outlet WFAA.
"For someone to reach out to me with such a positive thing, it put a big smile on my face […] it made my day," she said.
Vinson and her fiancé, Derrick Markray, were allowed to visit a Zales store in Dallas and pick out whichever engagement ring their hearts desired.
The nurse received criticism earlier in September when she took a flight from Dallas to Ohio to plan her wedding, returning from the weekend trip just one day before she started showing signs of Ebola.
Vinson recalled losing her original engagement ring to WFAA, saying that she had left the ring at home when she went to the hospital because she thought it would be safe there.
"I took off all my jewelry, thinking that my jewelry would be safer at home than in the hospital," the nurse said. "And when the decontamination team came in, everything that was on the surface was swiped into a bin for incineration. My jewelry box being on my nightstand was one of those things that got destroyed."
"I was kind of speechless," Vinson said.
