--- title: Ebola: Spanish Nurse Leaves Hospital Disease-Free description: The Spanish nurse believed to be the first person to have contracted the Ebola virus outside Africa has been released from hospital. canonical: https://time.com/3560184/spanish-nurse-teresa-romero-ebola/ author: Elizabeth Barber article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-11-06T04:43:01.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-21T11:15:44.762Z article:section: World og:title: Ebola: Spanish Nurse Leaves Hospital Cured og:description: Teresa Romero, 44, thanked God and her caregivers for “giving her back life.” og:url: https://time.com/3560184/spanish-nurse-teresa-romero-ebola/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltff308b3a889fa3b0/69876471428a9efa95cc4e8d/spain-ebola_wong.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Spain Ebola og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Ebola: Spanish Nurse Leaves Hospital Cured twitter:description: Teresa Romero, 44, thanked God and her caregivers for “giving her back life.” twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltff308b3a889fa3b0/69876471428a9efa95cc4e8d/spain-ebola_wong.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The Spanish Nurse Who Survived Ebola Leaves Hospital Disease-Free by [Elizabeth Barber](/author/elizabeth-barber/) ## Elizabeth Barber Nov 6, 2014 4:43 AM CUT  Teresa Romero, bottom right, arrives with medical workers to give a press statement before she leaves the Carlos III hospital in Madrid, Spain, Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2014. Teresa Romero, bottom right, arrives with medical workers to give a press statement before she leaves the Carlos III hospital in Madrid, Spain, Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2014.Andres Kudacki—AP by [Elizabeth Barber](/author/elizabeth-barber/) ## Elizabeth Barber Nov 6, 2014 4:43 AM CUT The Spanish nurse’s aide believed to be the first person to have contracted Ebola outside Africa was on Wednesday released from a Madrid hospital. Teresa Romero, 44, thanked God and her caregivers for “[giving her back life](http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/06/world/europe/ebola-outbreak-spain.html "undefined"),” the New York _Times_ reports. Health officials said it was impossible to discern which of several factors — including the use of an experimental Ebola drug and blood plasma from another survivor — had beaten the often fatal disease Romero had tested positive for the illness almost a month ago, after treating a missionary who had come down with the disease in West Africa and later died in Madrid. Her case had stoked fears that Ebola could threaten countries with advanced health care systems — worries that reached new heights when two health care workers in Dallas also contracted the illness — and played into a furious blame game. “I don’t know what went wrong, I don’t even know if [anything went wrong](http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/11/05/us-health-ebola-spain-idUSKBN0IP29U20141105 "undefined"),” Romero said. “I only know that … if my infection can be of some use, so that the disease can be studied better or to help find a vaccine or to cure other people, here I am.” \[[_NYT_](http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/06/world/europe/ebola-outbreak-spain.html "undefined")\] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3560184/spanish-nurse-teresa-romero-ebola/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3560184/spanish-nurse-teresa-romero-ebola/"},"headline":"The Spanish Nurse Who Survived Ebola Leaves Hospital Disease-Free","datePublished":"2014-11-06T04:43:01.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T11:15:44.762Z","description":"\"I don't know what went wrong,\" Teresa Romero said","url":"https://time.com/3560184/spanish-nurse-teresa-romero-ebola/","keywords":["ebola","Madrid","West Africa"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltff308b3a889fa3b0/69876471428a9efa95cc4e8d/spain-ebola_wong.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Elizabeth Barber","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/elizabeth-barber/"}],"articleSection":"World","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltff308b3a889fa3b0/69876471428a9efa95cc4e8d/spain-ebola_wong.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Spain Ebola","caption":"Spain Ebola","creditText":"Andres Kudacki—AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/world/","name":"World"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/ebola/","name":"ebola"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3560184/spanish-nurse-teresa-romero-ebola/","name":"The Spanish Nurse Who Survived Ebola Leaves Hospital Disease-Free"}}]}] ```