Dr. Martin Salia |
A
doctor who spent time treating Ebola patients in West Africa died from
the virus Monday. The death of Dr. Martin Salia, who contracted Ebola in
Sierra Leone, marks the second time Ebola has claimed a victim in the
United States.
Salia died at around 5 a.m. ET Monday, according to Nebraska Medicine spokesman Taylor Wilson.
A legal permanent resident of the United States, Salia was treating patients in West Africa when he contracted the virus.
Salia
arrived Saturday at Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha. The hospital
tweeted Monday that he was “extremely critical” when his treatment began
and “unfortunately, despite our best efforts, we weren’t able to save
him.”
Salia was suffering from advanced symptoms of Ebola, including kidney and respiratory failure, health officials said.
The
first Ebola patient to die in the United States was Thomas Eric Duncan,
a Liberian national who traveled to Texas in September from that West
African country that, like Sierra Leone and Guinea, has been hit the
hardest by the Ebola epidemic.
Duncan,
42, died at a Dallas hospital. He initially went to the same facility’s
emergency room after he began having symptoms, but he was misdiagnosed
and sent home. Two days later, he was back in the hospital, where he
tested positive for the virus and his treatment began.
It
is rare for someone to die in the United States from Ebola because
medical and monetary resources are extensive — much more so than in West
Africa.
When
Salia was in Sierra Leone, the team caring for him characterized him as
critical ill, possibly sicker than patients treated successfully in the
United States, according to Nebraska health officials.
Salia’s
wife, a Maryland resident, pushed to get him evacuated from Sierra
Leone, the U.S. State Department said. An air ambulance crew evaluated
him in Freetown and determined he was well enough to travel.(PUNCH)
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