BC nurse practitioner in isolation at Kelowna General tests negative for Ebola

WATCH: A BC nurse returns from Sierra Leone and immediately enters isolation. Are BC’s Ebola protocols up to the challenge? Jeremy Hunka reports.

KELOWNA — A B.C. nurse practitioner, who was working in Sierra Leone at an Ebola treatment centre, was isolated in Kelowna General Hospital today after showing symptoms consistent with the virus. She has since tested negative for Ebola, according to the Ministry of Health.

Patrice Gordon will remain in isolation at KGH for the next few days in accordance with provincial health protocols. KGH is fully prepared to handle Gordon, as of last October the hospital was designated as one of the five B.C. facilities able to handle Ebola patients.

The risk to the public is extremely low since Gordon is being kept away from other patients and staff. According to the Deputy Provincial Health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry, the province is currently monitoring seven people who have come from the Ebola zone.

Gordon arrived home from West Africa on Dec. 25 and three days later began to experience mild influenza-like illness. She went to the emergency room on Dec. 29. The Rossland resident said in a facebook post she had a sore throat, myalgias, headache and a rising temperature but believed it was a case of the flu.

“The journey from Freetown, Sierra Leone to Brussels, London, Calgary then Kelowna was rife with hacking, coughing travellers, one who apparently generously shared their virus with me. I’m obligated to check my temperature twice daily and report in so as I felt the sore throat, myalgias, headache coming on, and saw the mercury rising (ok, so they don’t have mercury anymore), I could see what was coming. And yep. Here I sit now in the hospital on the receiving end of people dressed in full PPE, waiting for test results which will (no doubt in my mind) show that I have a boring old influenza.”

Gordon, who is a mother of three, was the first health care professional from Interior Health to travel to West Africa to care for Ebola patients.

Gordon is a member of the Emergency Response Unit with the Canadian Red Cross and previously volunteered in a multinational medical unit in Kandahar, Afghanistan in 2008.

According to Interior Health, Gordon works in the Chilcotin area providing health services to rural inhabitants.

Despite the scare, Gordon says on her Facebook that she wants to return to West Africa.

“I felt (ashamed to admit) scared last night – because it was such a production and I was just me with all these people looking at me like I was a specimen, yet I drove up to vaguely familiar hospital, knowing what to expect, with people saying in my language “park over here, Patrice” “stay in your vehicle til we’re ready for you, Patrice”. How much MORE frightening and unfamiliar it must be for our people back in Kenema. We use our eyes and our voices to try to connect with them and reassure them as they step out or are stretchered out of the ambulance…. Sometimes, though, I know it’s not enough and that makes me immeasurably sad. So here I sit in the middle of the night as the year draws to a close, thinking how lucky we are here in Canada, and how much more there is to do elsewhere. And thinking I need to go back.”

In a statement from Gordon, she said, “while I’m feeling like I just have cold symptoms, I completely understand and respect the meticulous attention to Ebola management protocols, considering my recent work in Sierra Leone.  My biggest concern is that the publicity given to my situation here in BC right now might deflect some of the attention from the real issue, which is the plight of the people in Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia…”