Alma, the dog that succeeded Excalibur in Teresa Romero's home -after being sacrificed on suspicion of having Ebola-, runs around the house while she remembers for EL MUNDO how she defeated Ebola in 2015, after becoming the first A woman infected by the virus outside Africa after becoming infected at the Carlos III Hospital in Madrid, still works, but no longer in contact with infected people, but in the Pharmacy service.

Romero, a simple and straightforward woman, brings the "only advice," he says, that he can give the infected who are where she was, and fight today against the coronavirus : "Let them be strong coconut, which in the end is what you save ». That, and that they do not get bored during their 'captivity', she releases: she admits that at some point she wanted to be helped to die, but also that she entertained herself reading '50 Shades of Gray ' .

How do you remember all that? The disease you pass, the physical leaves, but the coconut does not. Everything became too media, everyone making judgments. Every time I went out on a site they put me on a donkey. Some people supported me, but for others it was the worst. But what I have suffered most is because I have done my job, I have been infected, I have become ill and I have been questioned. That was my fault, to get rid of them. That if I had touched my face ... If I don't know, even at this point, how I got it, I don't know. Well, like these gentlemen who are today with the coronavirus. The test is positive but they have not been in Italy or China. They don't know how they got infected and I will never know [her husband, Javier Limón intervenes: "Let's see, because there, where Tere was infected, there were cameras, but then it turns out that none had recorded. So what protocol was that ?] Because everyone picking up the mattress and the missionary's clothes that came from Sierra Leone infected with Ebola, which was supposed to be the point of contagion ... Ok, but I don't know. I don't remember any scandalous moments, of accident, that I left ... There was nothing decisive, and since it was two nights that I attended this man, I don't know, first I thought it was the second day, then the first one, you go there to attend and there are viruses Throughout the room, that is, imagine. And what was the time you were almost 50 minutes?, asks Teresa Romero her husband. It was the second time. With the mattress. 55 minutes, yes. The second time we were with the mattress p'arriba and p'abajo ... We were three and I remember that there was a time when my companion had the mattress on which the missionary had died vertically, in front of her, 10 centimeters from her face, pum [she puts her hand in front of her face]. I was keeping it in plastic. I looked at her and I got scared and everything, of what I was doing. And it goes and does not spread, and the other does not ... And I do. Well, I don't know. How do you remember when they tell you that you have the virus? They don't tell me, they never told me that, I found out online, through the press. I was in the Emergency Department of the Alcorcón Hospital and since the companions were no longer entering, or they took a long time, I showed myself and looked at the cell phone. And that's when I read: 'A nursing assistant, two positives in Ebola'. But the emergency doctor said nothing to me, because he was not told either. What did he think at that moment? I think I don't know what I thought. I was afraid, I guess, and ... I collapsed. And nothing, it was like this [Javier intervenes: "Well, when I was there in the ER and they told me that you had it, I started crying like a cupcake, like a small child. I couldn't think to think if I even had it. In fact, at the Alcorcón Hospital at that time they sent me home, to go home and to come back the next day. And I had to say to them: 'But my lords, would it not be better if you admitted me? My wife has, that we are living together, give me proof, that I still have something ... 'And they:' Ah, well, well, you're right, you better go with her to Carlos III. And what do we do, are you going you in your car or we take you by ambulance? "And I:" Man, well, if you take me better ... "It was all that improvised. My wife had Ebola and they sent me home. And then, in Carlos III, every time the doctors dressed dressed in a way, sometimes protected, sometimes not ...] Teresa, you are still working in Carlos III, where there are affected by coronavirus: do you think it has been learned from that lack of coordination and improvisation? I think quite a lot, yes. From 2014 to 2020 a lot of training has been done, that is the truth. They do essays and training. I don't know exactly how, because I'm in the Pharmacy service, I don't have contact with patients. But every three months they go to the sixth floor, which is the High Insulation Unit, and there they are formed. Taking off and putting on the suit. It will be easier now, because there is a base. When mine had never been done. They will have changed the protocol 100 times since then. How many weeks did it take you to beat Ebola? Well, I entered on October 7, 2014, and on the 21st they told me I had a blood negative. Two weeks. And how do you remember that melee fight with the virus? Well, I was awake at the beginning and the end, but not in between. I remember pulmonary edema, and much, much breathlessness, choking. No pain, but not breathing. And what did they give you for the pain? Javier asks his wife. The strongest thing there was, morphine, I guess, because I didn't have pain: I told them I didn't want pain. Having things for pain, pain relievers, I didn't want pain. Then I also remember the thirst I had. Since I had edema, I couldn't drink, so they gave me a half-liter bottle a day. And that rationed, imagine. I spent the night asking for water. And my head? Well, I remember everything well. What if my head went away? What was I thinking? Let's see, it is true that my head went away, my clamp went away. I also tell you that there was a moment that, well, this has been told to me, because I was wrong ... But there was a time when I insulted my classmates. 'Give me a drink, motherfuckers', or whatever [laughs]. Because you are already so bad that ... You use your survival instinct. And I thought he was dying, I imagine. Well, the truth is that he was short of breath, there was a moment that was drowning me a lot and that the partners entered and I said: 'Hey, help me die,' because I was so tired. They passed me, they ignored me, they raised my oxygen, which maybe they came in for that ... That was a dodgy moment. And other chungos were to see that that was approaching, that death was approaching and well, a little waiting ... I want to say that I, as I did not want to go to the other neighborhood, because there I endured and endured. And I stayed I spent one night fucked, and then another, and so on until the body is eliminating the virus. Is the mental there the important thing? It is the fundamental thing. Very important If I hadn't thought about getting out of there, wanting to get out, I wouldn't have left. That was key. Because I didn't have physical strength, I couldn't even get up, but since I was right in the head ... And also that I was young, and I still am, right? Haha ... [is 50 years old]. Well, and I played sports. That the immune system makes you stronger. But it is the head. If you let yourself go and see everything wrong ... If you want to leave, you can leave quietly, in that situation. It's all about crossing a line. A line. I was thinking: 'I don't want to sleep. Because I know that if I fall asleep, I die. ' I was placing myself within the limit. And I didn't want to lie down, because if I lay down, I drowned. Then I was sitting in bed all the time and saying: 'I don't want to sleep, I don't want to sleep'. Until I slept. Because I did not sleep. Do you think that many people would endure that? Well, I don't know. But look, this lady who donated the plasma to me, Patience, who spent it in Africa [the nun whose blood was put to overcome the infection] ... Aunt passed it with paracetamol and Aquarius. In a place where she had to be helping her sick while she was cleaning other sick people! This woman's thing was hard. He apparently had a basin and pulls, pulls. So imagine: Does everything that lived the arrival of the coronavirus stir? Man, of course, enough. They are different diseases, but it is a new virus. You remember, of course. Well, but you beat the virus. I could be proud. Well, I don't feel anything, hehe. A tip for those who are in isolation. It is hard to be in isolation. Especially when the nurses come in with the suits, that they can't even see their faces ... But let's see, if I left Ebola, the coronavirus, which is now little more than a constipated ... I can tell you that entertain, the TV that does not watch much, that can get to obsess you. Let them read a book. I read the one of '50 Shades of Gray ', which I then left there, because they didn't let me take it out. And the coconut, that they are strong of coconut. And this of the coronavirus seems excessive alarm? Mmm. How do I tell you: mmm. I think the alarm is not excessive, but you have to be sensible. Wash our hands, if we are ill put on the mask ... Common sense. I say that if in China many partners have been infected, many toilets, it is necessary to think, there are things we do not know. The director of Wuhan hospital this one ... The first doctor, who was ignored, goes and says it too. And then as the Chinese are so reserved ... I spend all day looking, and this goes up, yes. The virus has to be in the air, there is no other. The disease pattern is unknown. I learned that he bought two masks, in case the flies. Well, hehe, yes. Not bought, I asked a partner. I haven't put it on, huh? But if something gets ugly ... It would be the milk that you passed from Ebola to the coronavirus ... Haha ... Man, it's complicated. But I am no longer with patients. This, today. If it turns out that then it spreads and has it to the neighbor, well ... He was stuck with a spine because his contagion was not investigated? Yes, the truth. Everything was archived and then I saw in the papers sent to the Health Court that 75 sanitary training actions had been given to us. And it was not so. The only thing I received was a talk. Half an hour They told us how to put on and take off our suits. And hala, p'adentro. From there, we were ourselves, the workers, talking to each other, who corrected ourselves. 'Put this like this, and the other handle.' Completely improvised. No one answered for my contagion, that is the truth. But it sure served to make it better now. I hope it gets better.

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