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Nurse Kaci Hickox Says She Plans To Break Home Quarantine For Ebola In Maine

Veronica Elliot October 29, 2014 06:16 AM EST

A guard wearing yellow scrub suit stands at the main gate of the University Hospital in Newark, New Jersey, which is near the site where nurse Kaci Hickox was placed in quarantine on suspicion of carrying the deadly Ebola virus. | (Photo: Reuters/Shannon Stapleton)

The nurse who was mandatory quarantined for Ebola in New Jersey before being released now says she will fight her quarantine at her home in Maine.

Kaci Hickox returned from treating Ebola patients in Sierra Leone last week when she was placed into mandatory quarantine after arriving at the Newark International Airport. Although Hickox claims she is asymptomatic, airport authorities said the nurse exhibited a slight fever while at the airport, and she was placed in a quarantine tent outside of a hospital in Newark.

The nurse protested her mandatory quarantine, hiring a lawyer and threatening to file a civil rights lawsuit against New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. Hickox argued that her "basic human rights" had been violated by keeping her under quarantine when she wasn't showing any symptoms.

Christie said earlier this week that Hickox may return to her home in Maine and complete her 21-day quarantine there. Now, Hickox is refuting this demand, saying that if she is not freed from her quarantine by Thursday, she will pursue legal matters to ensure her freedom.

"If the restrictions placed on me by the state of Maine are not lifted by Thursday morning, I will go to court to fight for my freedom," Hickox said on NBC's "Today" program on Wednesday.

The nurse went on to say that she was "appalled" by the 21-day quarantine requirements put in place by states like Maine and New Jersey, arguing that they were not based on science.

"I don't plan on sticking to the guidelines," she told NBC.

Also this week, President Barack Obama said in a speech at the White House that the U.S. must do all it can to respect health workers returning from West Africa, as they have been doing "God's work."

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