healthmedicinet

A surgeon who contracted Ebola in his native Sierra Leone received aggressive treatment at a Nebraska hospital over the weekend but died Monday morning.
 
Dr. Martin Salia’s death is a reminder of how deadly the Ebola virus is and how important it is to receive treatment early, said Dr. Jeff Gold, chancellor of the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha.

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“In the very advanced stages, even the modern techniques we have at our disposal are not enough to help these patients once they reach a critical threshold,” Gold said at a news conference.

In this April 2014 photo provided by the United Methodist News Service, Dr. Martin Salia poses for a photo at Kissy Hospital outside Freetown, Sierra Leone. Salia had advanced Ebola symptoms when he arrived in the U.S. on Saturday and died on Monday at a Nebraska hospital. (Mike DuBose/United Methodist News Service/Associated Press)

 

Salia, 44, was diagnosed with the virus Nov. 6. By the time he arrived at the Omaha hospital on Saturday, he was in extremely critical condition with no kidney function and severe respiratory problems.
 
He was placed on kidney dialysis and a ventilator, and was given several medications to support his organ systems, the hospital said in a statement. He was given the experimental Ebola drug ZMapp on Saturday and received a plasma transfusion from an Ebola survivor — a treatment that is believed to provide antibodies to fight the virus.

“We weren’t able to get him through this,” Dr. Daniel Johnson, a critical care physician at the hospital, said at a news conference today.

The ZMapp was provided by Mapp BioPharmaceutical, officials said. The company has said supplies of the experimental drug are limited.

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Two other Ebola patients have been successfully treated at the Omaha hospital. Of 10 people to be treated for the disease in the United States, all but two have recovered. Thomas Eric Duncan, of Liberia, died at a Dallas hospital in October.

Salia was on day 13 of his illness when he arrived in Omaha, Smith said. The hospital’s two surviving Ebola patients arrived on day six and day eight of their illnesses.

Doctors at the Nebraska Medical Center say they used every possible treatment available for Dr. Salia. (Nati Harnik/Associated Press)

Salia’s wife, Isatu Salia, said Monday that she and her family were grateful for the efforts made by her husband’s medical team.

Ebola has killed more than 5,000 people in West Africa, mostly in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone. Five other doctors in Sierra Leone have contracted Ebola, and all have died.

Salia had been working as a general surgeon at Kissy United Methodist Hospital in the Sierra Leone capital of Freetown. It’s not clear whether he was involved in the care of Ebola patients. Kissy is not an Ebola treatment unit, but Salia worked in at least three other facilities, United Methodist News said, citing health ministry sources.

Salia graduated from the Pan African Academy of Christian Surgeons training program in 2008. A fellow medical missionary, Richard Toupin, of Auburn, Indiana, last week described his colleague as “one of the best-trained surgeons in his country.”

Bruce Steffes, executive director of PAACS, said Salia was free to practice anywhere he wanted, but that he elected to stay in Sierra Leone where the need for surgeons is immense.

The White House also sent condolences in a statement, saying Salia’s death “is another reminder of the human toll of this disease and of the continued imperative to tackle this epidemic on the front lines, where Dr. Salia was engaged in his calling.”

Salia’s wife, who lives in New Carrollton, Maryland, said in a weekend telephone interview that when she spoke to her husband early Friday his voice sounded weak and shaky. But she said he told her “I love you” in a steady voice.

They prayed together, she said, calling her husband “my everything.”