Javier Limón, husband of Spanish nurse Teresa Romero, has released a message of thanks to all who are supporting her as she struggles to survive Ebola. He encouraged them to use their outrage at the Spanish healthcare system to call for aid to stop the virus in its tracks in Africa, not just its spread around the world.
In a letter that family spokesperson Teresa Mesa read, Limón specifically referenced the online campaign to save the couple’s dog, Excalibur, from being put down due to concerns that he may have contracted Ebola. Limón asked Spaniards to “put in their grain of sand” to contribute to a cure for the disease. “I wish with all my heart that each child who dies in Africa receives the same support that was given to Excalibur, that the world become conscious of this,” he stated.
Limón noted, “In the civilized world, it seems that we take note of problems only when they directly affect us. … I want to call upon authorities around the world to put together the necessary resources, which we all know they have, to put an end to this virus.”
That is not to say that Limón has forgotten the fate of Excalibur, who was killed despite no conclusive evidence that dogs can transmit Ebola to humans. (Dogs can carry the virus in their blood without any detrimental effect to their own health.) Limón also wrote a letter to the dog, commemorating the first week since his death. “While I write this letter,” he wrote, “I can’t stop crying, but I am proud of you because you were an example to the whole world and will not be easily forgotten. … I promise you justice.”
Limón has been prolific since being quarantined at Madrid’s Carlos III Hospital after his wife’s positive diagnosis. Reports have circulated that the couple may take legal action against the Madrid Health Ministry and possibly Spain’s national Ministry of Health. Such action would be based both on Limón’s claim that Romero received only half an hour of time to learn how to wear protective gear before treating an Ebola patient and disparaging remarks by Madrid’s chief health official, Javier Rodríguez, in which he suggested that “one does not need a Master’s” to use the protective gear” and that Romero’s health was “not that bad if she was going to the beauty salon.”