BOKISSONTHRONE: Surgeon dies of Ebola at Nebraska hospital after contracting disease in Sierra Leone

Monday, November 17, 2014

Surgeon dies of Ebola at Nebraska hospital after contracting disease in Sierra Leone

A surgeon who contracted Ebola in Sierra Leone died from the disease Monday at a Nebraska hospital, officials said. Dr. Martin Salia, shown at the United Methodist Church's Kissy Hospital outside Freetown, Sierra Leone, in March, died Monday in Nebraska from Ebola.

Dr. Martin Salia, shown at the United Methodist Church's Kissy Hospital outside Freetown, Sierra Leone, in March, died Monday in Nebraska from Ebola.

Dr. Martin Salia, 44, arrived at Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha on Saturday in extremely critical condition and was described as “possibly sicker than the first patients successfully treated in the United States.” He had kidney and respiratory symptoms when he arrived, hospital officials said, and he was placed on dialysis, a ventilator and given medications to try and fight the lethal disease.

Doctors started the patient on a dosage of ZMapp, an experimental drug used to fight the virus, on Saturday, and pumped him with plasma donated by someone who recovered from the diease, the hospital said. Health workers in protective suits transport Dr. Martin Salia, a surgeon working in Sierra Leone who had been diagnosed with Ebola, from a jet that brought him from Sierra Leone to a waiting ambulance on Saturday in Omaha. Salia died Monday.

Health workers in protective suits transport Dr. Martin Salia, a surgeon working in Sierra Leone who had been diagnosed with Ebola, from a jet that brought him from Sierra Leone to a waiting ambulance on Saturday in Omaha. Salia died Monday.

Those efforts helped nine other people treated in the U.S. for Ebola to survive. Salia, who lived in Maryland, is the second person to die of the disease on United States soil. Thomas Eric Duncan, a 42-year-old Liberian national, died in Dallas on Oct. 8.

"It is with an extremely heavy heart that we share this news," Dr. Phil Smith, medical director of the Biocontainment Unit at Nebraska Medical Center said in a statement. "Dr. Salia was extremely critical when he arrived here, and unfortunately, despite our best efforts, we weren't able to save him."

Salia was working as a general surgeon in Freetown, Sierra Leone and showed symptoms on Nov. 6, but did not test positive for Ebola until Nov. 10. He died a week later.

"We're very grateful for the efforts of the team led by Dr. Smith," Isatu Salia, Dr. Salia's wife, said in a statement. "In the short time we spent here, it was apparent how caring and compassionate everyone was. We are so appreciative of the opportunity for my husband to be treated here and believe he was in the best place possible."

Hospital officials are expected to release more information later Monday.

After Duncan died in October, two nurses contracted Ebola. It's unclear what measures the hospital will take with workers who treated Salia.