CREDIT: REUTERS/JOE PENNEY
A Sierra Leonean doctor sick with Ebola is expected to depart the West African country on Friday night (November 14) to fly to theUnited States for treatment and be reunited with his American wife, according to the doctor’s church and employer.
Dr. Martin Salia, 44, contracted the virus last week while working as the chief medical officer and surgeon at the United Methodist Church’s Kissy Hospital in Freetown in Sierra Leone, one of the three West African countries hardest hit by the worst Ebola outbreak on record.
He is expected to be taken to the Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, which has successfully treated two other people who contracted the virus in West Africa since September and is one of four American hospitals approved by the federal government to treat Ebola.
Salia’s son, Maada, said the family has been in contact with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control about his father’s treatment.
“We contacted them yesterday and we are still talking to them every day and they already sent people back to Freetown to see what they can do, if they can either treat him there or maybe fly him here. Hopefully, we expect him on Saturday.”
On Thursday, the hospital and the U.S. Department of State said a patient who had contracted Ebola in Sierra Leone was being evaluated for possible treatment but both declined to name the patient, citing privacy laws. The hospital also said that the patient would only be taken there if the crew on Phoenix Air, the chartered flight company that has carried out previous evacuations organized by the State Department, deems his health stable enough to make the journey.
After Salia fell sick last week and was taken to Freetown’s Connaught Hospital, he was discharged last Friday when an Ebola test came back negative. He was tested again and diagnosed with Ebola on Tuesday, the hospital said.
Maada Salia said the family is trying to remain positive.
“We are trying very hard to be strong because right now we don’t want him to feel like we are not doing our own part, so we’re trying everything possible to make sure he knows we are strong for him and we hope that he recovers soon and joins us back here healthily and safely.”
Salia would be the 10th known case of Ebola in the United States.
Eight of those other patients were successfully treated, and one of those patients, a Liberian man named Thomas Eric Duncan, died.
Reuters wires