On October 13’s feast of the Miracle of the Sun, parishioners at Our Lady of Fatima Catholic Church in Fort Worth prayed for another miracle.
Our Lady of Fatima is the parish home of the family of Nina Pham, the nurse who contracted Ebola while caring for Thomas Duncan.
According to the Dallas Morning News, Nina is reported not to have been to the parish campus in a few months, since she lives and works in Dallas on the other side of the “Metroplex.” Pham graduated college in 2010 with a nursing degree.
Nina’s family has been active at Our Lady of Fatima parish for years, friends say. OLF pastor Father Jim Khoi reports from his conversations with the family that Nina is “very comfortable. She’s very supported now. She knows that everybody knew to pray for her especially in this difficult time.” During her quarantine, Nina is staying in contact with her family by phone calls and Skype.
Nina’s family is Vietnamese, as is Our Lady of Fatima parish. The church offers three Sunday and five weekday Masses, all in Vietnamese.
From twitter, a confirmation at OLF parish.
The parish has a tightly knit community and is rallying around Nina’s family. Mass was offered in the parish chapel on Monday evening October 13 for Nina and other Ebola victims.
Nina “is a very devoted Catholic, and always puts the other people’s interests ahead of her own,” reports CNN, quoting a family friend. “She comes from a family that is (of) a very strong faith,” making it no surprise “that she (did) more than her duty called for in order to make sure the patient had a chance to survive.”
Many hope that the blood transfusion Nina received from Dr. Kent Brantly will help save her life along with other medical interventions. Brantly is the missionary doctor and Ebola survivor in the U.S., and scientists say that survivors’ blood has antibodies to help others defeat the disease.