Achill relatives pray for Ebola nurse

Achill relatives pray for Ebola nurse


Grandfather of nurse came from Achill

Anton McNulty

The Achill cousins of Scottish nurse, Pauline Cafferkey, who remains in a critical condition after being diagnosed with Ebola, say they are praying she will make a full recovery.
Ms Cafferkey remains critically ill in a north London hospital where she is being treated for the deadly virus after her condition worsened over the weekend.
The 39 year-old’s family has very close ties with Achill Island as her late grandfather, Anthony, was born in Bunnacurry and her father, Michael, is a regular visitor to the island. She has many relatives still living on the island and one cousin told The Mayo News they were shocked to hear she contracted the virus and that they were praying she will make a recovery.
“All her cousins and relations here in Achill are praying for her and hoping she can make a recovery. I knew she was a nurse but I did not know she had gone out to Africa to be honest. We heard she was sick before her name was realised in the media and it was a huge shock. We have been in contact with her family in Scotland and we are hoping that she will be alright and we will get better news soon,” her cousin said.
Anthony Cafferkey was born at The Shore, Bunnacurry, and emigrated to Scotland in his teenage years where he worked in the coal mines around Aryshire, outside Glasgow. While in Scotland, he met and married Anne Sharkey, from Donegal, who was the aunt of Ireland and Celtic goalkeeper, Packie Bonner. Anthony’s sister, Grace Grealis, died shortly before the Christmas in Achill.

Family remain close to Achill
Anthony died in Scotland over 20 years ago but his family remained close to the island and Pauline’s father, Michael, last visited the island two years ago.  
Ms Cafferkey is originally from near Cowdenbeath in Fife on the east coast of Scotland but worked as a public health nurse in the Blantyre Health Centre near Glasgow. She volunteered to work with the charity Save the Children in Sierra Leone in November and flew back to the UK on December 28.
She arrived in Glasgow via Casablanca in Morocco and Heathrow Airport, where she was screened for the disease and where she told officials she believed a fever might be developing.
Her temperature was taken seven times in total, six of which were within 30 minutes, and was normal each time, so she was allowed to fly home to Scotland.
However, soon after arriving in Glasgow she was placed in an isolation unit at Glasgow’s Gartnavel Hospital after becoming feverish, before being transferred by RAF Hercules plane to London and on to the Royal Free’s specialist treatment centre.
Ms Cafferkey began specialist treatment via a quarantine tent at the Royal Free Hospital and her treatment involved convalescent plasma taken from the blood of a recovered patient and an experimental anti-viral drug which is ‘not proven to work’. Her condition deteriorated over the weekend and her doctors said her condition was critical and remained so at the time of going to print.
Ms Cafferkey worked in the Ebola Treatment Centre, Kerrytown, a sprawling facility on the outskirts of the Sierra Leone capital city, Freetown, with the capacity to treat around 80 patients. She wore a protective suit throughout her work and while it is not known how she contracted the deadly virus, it was reported it may have occurred when she attended a service on Christmas Day.
She is the second foreign medic to be infected while working in Kerrytown. In November, a Cuban doctor became unwell and was flown to Geneva for treatment, which was successful.