Sierra Leonian Doctor Diagnosed Of Ebola Has Died In US

 

Dr. Martin Salia, the Sierra Leonian doctor who was diagnosed with Ebola in Sierra Leone and flown to Nebraska in the United States over the weekend for treatment, has died.

 

Just a few weeks after the death of Thomas Eric Duncan, a man who contracted Ebola in Africa (Liberia) died in Dallas, 44-year-old Dr. Salia is the second person to die of the disease in the US. He arrived in Omaha on Saturday, having left Freetown on Friday by air ambulance. He was immediately transported to Nebraska Medical Center, where he began treatment.

 

He was not able to walk off the plane, as other patients brought to the US have been able to do. Instead, he was taken off the plane in an isopod, a special device designed to keep contagion from spreading. He was placed on a stretcher and loaded into an ambulance. He was suffering from advanced symptoms of the deadly disease, including kidney and respiratory failure, reported The Guardian.

 

Dr. Phil Smith, Medical Director of the Nebraska Medical Center's biocontainment unit and professor of Infectious Diseases at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, in a statement said, “It is with an extremely heavy heart that we share this news. Dr. Salia was extremely critical when he arrived here, and unfortunately, despite our best efforts, we weren't able to save him.”

 

Before his death, Dr. Salia left his wife and two children in New Carrollton, Maryland, a surburb of Washington to work in Sierra Leone. His wife said although he knew the risks of working in Sierra Leone, he still chose to work there.