TRENTON, N.J. (AP) – The health care worker who sharply criticized being quarantined at a New Jersey hospital last year because she had contact with Ebola patients in West Africa said in a lawsuit filed Thursday that Gov. Chris Christie and the state health department illegally held her against her will.
Attorneys for Kaci Hickox filed the federal civil rights lawsuit in Newark on Thursday. The suit also names former state Health Commissioner Mary O’Dowd and other health department employees. Hickox is seeking at least $250,000 in compensatory and punitive damages.
Hickox, 34, is a nurse who was working with Doctors Without Borders in Sierra Leone during last year’s deadly Ebola outbreak. She was stopped when she arrived at Newark Liberty International airport and questioned over several hours before being sent to stay in quarantine in a tent outside of a hospital in Newark, despite having no symptoms of the disease.
“My liberty, my interests and consequently my civil rights were ignored because some ambitious governors saw an opportunity to use an age-old political tactic: fear,” Hickox said in a statement.
A spokesman for Christie didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. O’Dowd said she hadn’t received the lawsuit and referred comment to the state health department, which said it does not comment on pending litigation.