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Life In Vickery Meadow Returns To Normal After Ebola

Doualy Xaykaothao
/
KERA News
Thomas Eric Duncan visited the Ivy apartments in Vickery Meadow before being transported to Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas.

Dallas faced an unprecedented public health scare in the fall of 2014 when a Liberian national was diagnosed with the Ebola virus. KERA is exploring lessons learned – and taking a deeper look at what happened last year – in anew series called Surviving Ebola. The special program will air this afternoon at 2 p.m. on KERA 90.1 FM.

Explore the KERA digital project here. There’s a timeline of Ebola-related events, voices of those most affected by the virus, and much more.

A year ago, reporters and photographers were camped outside the Ivy Apartments in Northeast Dallas. Thomas Eric Duncan, a Liberian national, was staying there before he was diagnosed with Ebola.

The apartment complex is in Vickery Meadow, a diverse neighborhood that’s home to thousands of immigrants from around the world.

Today, the Ivy Apartments is a much quieter. On a recent afternoon, kids ride their bikes and play in the parking lot.

The second-story apartment where Thomas Eric Duncan visited his fiancée last year is empty. Neighbors say it hasn’t been rented out since.

For them, life has moved on.

Read the rest of the story here.

Stella M. Chávez is KERA’s immigration/demographics reporter/blogger. Her journalism roots run deep: She spent a decade and a half in newspapers – including seven years at The Dallas Morning News, where she covered education and won the Livingston Award for National Reporting, which is given annually to the best journalists across the country under age 35.