Anna Younker said her bridal shop lost tens of thousands of dollars after Amber Vinson, a Dallas-based nurse who tested positive for Ebola, visited last month. Younker opted to close up shop during the incubation period and have her store professionally cleaned, and a string of frightened customers cancelled their orders.
So when Younker received a letter from Vinson recently, she told the Akron Beacon Journal she was expecting an apology. Instead, Younker remarked, she found an enclosed letter from Vinson's attorney asking her to refund $480 in deposits and payments for Vinson's bridesmaids' dresses.
“Would you kindly advise whether this is agreeable to Coming Attractions?” Stephen Malouf, Vinson's attorney, asked. “If it is not, would you ask your attorney to contact me to discuss this matter?”
Amber Vinson, 29, the Dallas nurse who was being treated for Ebola, speaks at a news conference as members of her nursing staff look on after being discharged from Emory University Hospital, Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2014, in Atlanta. Vinson worked as a nurse at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas and cared for Thomas Eric Duncan, a Liberian man who died of Ebola at the hospital on Oct. 8. Vinson was one of two nurses who became infected while caring for Duncan. (AP/David Goldman
“Are you kidding me?” Younker said. “This is like the icing on the cake for her to ask. By canceling completely because she wants to go somewhere else, that’s like a slap in the face to me.”
But Malouf said Vinson was actually trying to help Coming Attractions Bridal & Formal, located in Akron, Ohio.
“I’m sorry that the shop is upset,” Malouf remarked. “This was an effort to help the shop and Amber. Amber feels strongly that the publicity was such it was harming the business and she didn’t want to add any further scrutiny to it. This was a purely innocent request and I’m sorry it wasn’t received in the spirit in which it was sent.”
Vinson was the second Dallas nurse to contract Ebola after treating Thomas Eric Duncan, a man who flew to the United States from West Africa with the disease. Before she tested positive, Vinson flew from Texas to Ohio, having received permission from the CDC to board the flight. She was discharged from the hospital in late October after being deemed Ebola-free.
Younker said she can't "force" Vinson to continue doing business with her, but a refund is "not feasible."
"It doesn’t make sense," she said. "I’m out a lot of money.”
