What Kaci Hickox Will Do After 21-Day Monitoring Ends
Nurse who fought mandatory quarantine completes Ebola monitoring.
— -- The nurse who successfully fought a mandatory Ebola quarantine after returning from West Africa will complete her 21-day monitoring period at 11:59 p.m.tonight, Ebola-free.
Hickox and her boyfriend will celebrate the end of the monitoring period by visiting family and friends in Boston and Baltimore, her lawyer told ABC News, adding that he hopes she's able to stop by New York City, where he works.
"I’d like to finally shake her hand and hug her," said attorney Norman Siegel.
Hickox, 33, had been treating Ebola patients in Sierra Leone as part of Doctors Without Borders. She returned to the United States on Oct. 24, but when she landed at Newark Liberty International Airport, she was questioned for six hours and forced to spend the weekend in an isolation tent at a nearby hospital even though she was not sick.
The following Monday, she was allowed to drive home to Fort Kent, Maine, where officials tried to legally force her into mandatory quarantine. At one point, the Maine governor also suggested forcing her to take an Ebola blood test to prove she didn't have it.
An Augustus judge ruled on Oct. 31 that she could leave her home and spend time in public spaces, but she would need to continue to undergo monitoring and coordinate her travel with officials.
Siegel said this isn't the end of Hickox's quest for better understanding of Ebola and treatment of aid workers. She has already been invited to speak at one university, he said.
"I think her voice will continue to be heard," Siegel said. "She has a perspective and a voice and she’s very articulate."
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