President Barack Obama meets with Ebola survivor Nina Pham in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington on Friday, Oct. 24, 2014. Pham, the first nurse diagnosed with Ebola after treating an infected man at a Dallas hospital is free of the virus.BETHESDA, Md. – A nurse who caught Ebola while caring for the patient diagnosed in Dallas was released from a hospital Friday, free of the virus, and met with President Barack Obama at the White House.
Nurse Nina Pham said she felt “fortunate and blessed to be standing here today,” as she left the National Institutes of Health’s hospital outside Washington.
She thanked her health care team in Dallas and at the NIH and singled out fellow Ebola survivor Dr. Kent Brantly, who recovered after becoming infected in Liberia, for donating plasma containing Ebola-fighting antibodies as part of her care.
“Although I no longer have Ebola, I know it may be a while before I have my strength back,” Pham, 26, said at a news conference.
Doctors have cleared her to return home to Texas, and after speaking at NIH she met with Obama in the Oval Office, where the president hugged her. White House spokesman Josh Earnest called the meeting “an opportunity for the president to thank her for her service.”