Texas Ebola Patient’s Partner Speaks From Quarantine

Updated at 11:40 a.m. EST

The partner of the first Ebola patient in the U.S. spoke from quarantine in her home in Texas Thursday and said that the sheets that Thomas Eric Duncan slept on are still on the bed and that his towel is in a plastic bag, but the CDC has not sent anyone to pick them up.

In an interview with Anderson Cooper, Louise Troh said that the family is sleeping in the living room until they are told they are allowed to leave their house. Troh says the CDC told her to stay inside and take her, her 13-year-old son’s and her 23-year-old and 28-year-old nephews’ temperatures frequently. She is checking their temperatures every hour. Papers were delivered on Thursday for Troh to sign saying she had been ordered to stay inside and that if she leaves her house it is a crime.

When Cooper asked her about Duncan’s first hospital visit on September 25, Troh said that they told the doctors he had come from Liberia and had a fever of 100.1. They sent him home with a prescription for antibiotics. On September 28, Troh’s daughter, who lives elsewhere, brought Duncan tea and found him shaking. She called 911 and an ambulance came, at which point he was admitted to Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital.

“I’m just hanging in there depending on God to save our lives,” she told Cooper. “We can’t wait to be over with everything.”

This post has been updated with the last name of Louise Troh, as reported by the Washington Post on Oct. 3