Ebola Survivor Amber Vinson Speaks Out
CUOMO: So many of us are worried about controlling and contracting Ebola, fears fueled by horror stories of what it's like. Well, now, Ebola survivor Amber Vinson is telling us the reality. The Dallas nurse reveals the agony of the illness and something else that hurt, being questioned when she flew on a commercial jet after treating a Liberian man with Ebola. Vinson sat down with Don Lemon and had quite a conversation. Take a look and a listen.</s>AMBER VINSON, FORMER EBOLA PATIENT: I'm a nurse. I care. I care for me. I would not put myself in danger first, I would not take Ebola to my family and my best girlfriends. I would not endanger families across the nation potentially exposing them to anything. I had no symptoms. There was no way at that time I could not transmit it. So the science of it, no symptoms, you can't transmit it, so getting on that plane was just like whoever sat next to me getting on the plane. They had no symptoms either, you know? So I would not, it's never my goal or intention to bring harm to anyone.</s>DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: That really affected you?</s>VINSON: Yes.</s>LEMON: Why?</s>VINSON: Because it's not me. All I do is care. All I want do is help. I would never try to hurt anyone.</s>LEMON: That hurt, it hurts when people say that?</s>VINSON: Yes, because it is so not me. So far beyond what, who I am, I'm always caring. I'm always, you know, I put others before myself always.</s>CAMEROTA: Don Lemon joins us now to talk more. Hi, Don.</s>LEMON: Good morning. How are you guys?</s>CAMEROTA: Doing well. Tell us what your thoughts were?</s>LEMON: It hits really right here, actually right here for her, right, because the first thing I said was, you survived Ebola, right? How does that feel? And she talked about that. But what she really talked about how she feels the CDC handled it, the public, and the media, that it really hurt her, because she put her life on the line every day as a health care worker and she said, you know, I thought about it. But that's what I signed up for. You know, I thought about it when he came in, and they told us about what he had and what he contracted. That's what I signed up for, and so I went and I get the call of duty and all of a sudden I'm getting blamed.</s>CUOMO: Do you think she has a point though? Because the indecision by the CDC, the mix message --</s>LEMON: I think she does.</s>CUOMO: -- wound up making a target out of somebody who was doing the best thing possible.</s>LEMON: Not only a target, but she also talked about what the other nurses talked about, about the protocol, about being protected, about she said she never had a gap like the other nurses talked about, but she did see the other nurses. She says I'm a hippie girl. I said 1960s? She said no, I have some hips. She wore a bigger suit so she could be comfortable in her suit. We talked about. She said so I was covered.</s>CAMEROTA: How did she get it?</s>LEMON: She doesn't know how she got it. That's the thing. I talked to her about how it felt as well and she talked a little bit about how she got it, let's look at what it was like to have Ebola.</s>LEMON: What does it feel like?</s>VINSON: It takes so much out of you. It really does. It is very draining, and even now, walking a short distance, I get short of breath, but when I was going through my very rough couple of days, who was -- you got to force yourself to get up and forcing yourself takes a lot out of you, too. It's a struggle. You're fighting for your life.</s>LEMON: Did you ever think that you could lose your life, that you might not make it?</s>VINSON: I have such great faith and I was reading my Bible, reading Scriptures, and I didn't feel like it was my time yet.</s>LEMON: Wasn't her time. We talk about how she thinks she got it. Again she doesn't know for sure. She has maybe a little bit of an idea. But the interesting thing to me is, this whole Ebola stigma quite honestly and I told her that during the interview, we called around to a number of different places.</s>CUOMO: To do the interview?</s>LEMON: To do the interview and they said --</s>CAMEROTA: Oh my gosh!</s>LEMON: They said no. So, I was on the radio yesterday and people were asking me, you went to West Africa to trace your family roots, you had to take all the medication. How are you protecting yourself when you go to the interview? I said what do you mean? She doesn't have Ebola anymore, she can't spread Ebola.</s>PEREIRA: She doesn't have symptoms.</s>LEMON: And we went out to a couple places before we did the interview, I wanted the family to be comfortable and they were nice to us and when we called back to say we would like to do the interview there --</s>PEREIRA: No, thanks.</s>LEMON: No thank you.</s>CAMEROTA: That's really telling. All right, Don, thanks so much.</s>LEMON: Tonight at 10:00.</s>CAMEROTA: Yes, great.</s>CUOMO: Information is power, and as don just said, please, tune in tonight. Everybody wants to hear Amber Vinson's story, 10:00 Eastern Time, you get the full prime time exclusive interview with Amber Vinson, one great reason to watch tonight, the other one is we'll be on.</s>CAMEROTA: Oh, yes, that's right.</s>CUOMO: You're not going to be there.</s>LEMON: No.</s>CAMEROTA: Thanks, Don. Wait until you see this story, a Philadelphia nurse whose violent abduction was caught on camera, she has been found alive, we're happy to report this morning. Her suspected captor now behind bars and we're live on the ground with how this all happened.</s>CUOMO: And you know him -- sharp humor, unique brand of comedy, John Cleese will talk about his new book and we'll ask him about the Jon Stewart voting, how does he see it? The knights of nee!