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Speaker and Cooksey ignored doctors' warnings not to fly and boarded an Air France flight on May 12th. |
Thirty-one-year-old Speaker was diagnosed with what the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) called "the most virulent form of tuberculosis (TB), called extremely drug-resistant TB," says an article on www.abcnews.go.com.
Regardless of this news, however, Speaker and Cooksey proceeded with their wedding plans, and ignoring doctors' warnings not to fly, boarded an Air France flight on May 12th.
It wasn't until Speaker was already in Europe that the CDC called to tell him not to fly home.
Dr. Martin Cetron, CDC's director of Global Migration and Quarantine said in the same article that one of his officials spoke to Speaker to "share the information about the progressive culture results and to make clear that under no uncertain terms should he use aircraft."
But according to Speaker, not taking a commercial flight would have cost him $100,000, and the CDC didn't offer any help. He felt abandoned. So, he and his wife made a decision. Knowing the best place to treat his TB was in Denver, Speaker and Cooksey formulated a plan to get back into the U.S.
Cooksey said, "This wasn't a rash decision. They had all day, and we called all day and ['no'] was [the CDC's] final decision."
Risking exposing other passengers to his TB, Speaker boarded another plane with Cooksey and eventually arrived in Canada, where they then drove across the boarder.
According to the same article on www.abcnews.go.com, Speaker said that "what happened was a result of confusion, panic, and a desire to stay alive, but never to hurt strangers or his family."
"He hopes the TB tests of his fellow passengers come back negative," the article said.
"I feel awful," said Speaker. "I've lived in a state of constant fear and anxiety. I'm exhausted, for a week now. And to think that someone else is now feeling that, I wouldn't want anyone to feel that way—it's awful. I just hope they can forgive me and understand that I really believed [I] wasn't putting people at risk because that's what the people told me."
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