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Following 2nd Ebola Nurse Diagnosis, Dallas' Village Reacts With Caution, Concern

Bill Zeeble
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KERA News
Village apartment security stand watch near Amber Vinson's apartment, being cleaned and sterilized as this picture was taken. More than 10,000 people live in this sprawling apartment complex near Skillman Stree north of Lover's Lane

Amber Vinson, the second Dallas nurse to contract Ebola, lives in the Village Apartments, just a couple miles south of Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital.  It’s the biggest apartment complex in Dallas, with more than 10,000 tenants.

Vinson’s apartment is in a shady, wooded section called The Green just off Skillman Street. Outside a nearby coffee shop next to the DART rail, Michael Sale sat with his java and a cigarette. When he left his Village apartment this morning, he hadn’t heard the news. Now that he has, he’s concerned for Vinson, but not himself.

“That place is so well taken care of,” Sale said. “It’s spotless. The Village is almost as clean as a hospital. Really, it is.” 

Credit Bill Zeeble / KERA News
/
KERA News
Michael Sale lives in the Village. He's not worried about his own health as a result of Amber Vinson's Ebola diagnosis, but he is concerned about her.

At the same coffee shop, standing outside, Suzanne Smith called Vinson’s diagnosis scary.

“And I think life as we know it will change.  I think we’re all going to be scared to be out in in public,” Smith said. “We’re all going to have to wear masks and suits.”

Workers in their own hazmat suits started decontaminating Vinson’s apartment hours before the sun rose. 

Bill Zeeble has been a full-time reporter at KERA since 1992, covering everything from medicine to the Mavericks and education to environmental issues.