Sierra Leone Doctor Dies From Ebola In U.S. Hospital
The doctor who was flown to the U.S. after treating Ebola patients in Sierra Leone died Monday morning while receiving treatment at the Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha.
Dr. Martin Salia, originally from Maryland, was flown from Sierra Leone's capital of Freetown over the weekend to receive treatment at the Omaha-area hospital, known to have one of the most comprehensive quarantine units in the country designed for treating Ebola.
According to The Washington Post, Salia was listed as being in "extremely critical condition" when he took the private flight from Sierra Leone to Nebraska. The doctor had been treating patients at the Kissy United Methodist Hospital in Freetown when he began showing symptoms of the deadly disease, and although he tested negative for the disease two times, the third test showed he was infected with the virus.
"It is with an extremely heavy heart that we share this news," Phil Smith, medical director of the Biocontainment Unit at Nebraska Medical Center, said in a statement, as reported by The Washington Post. "Dr. Salia was extremely critical when he arrived here, and unfortunately, despite our best efforts, we weren't able to save him."
"We used every possible treatment available to give Dr. Salia every possible opportunity for survival. As we have learned, early treatment with these patients is essential. In Dr. Salia's case, his disease was already extremely advanced by the time he came here for treatment," Smith added.
Salia is the second person to die from Ebola after being treated on U.S. soil. The first, a Liberian national named Eric Timothy Duncan, died of the virus in Texas in September. Both men had been in advanced stages of the disease when they began treatment.
