Dr. Martin Salia, a Sierra Leonean surgeon with Ebola, who was transferred to a biocontainment center in Omaha, NEB, over the weekend, has been pronounced dead by medical officials.
The news of the death of the 44-year-old surgeon with Ebola has been met with sadness by many people. The surgeon with Ebola was working selflessly in Africa when he became infected with the virus.
"It is with an extremely heavy heart that we share this news," the director of the biomedical unit at the hospital where the doctor with Ebola Dr. Martin Salia passed on, Phil Smith, said. "Dr. [Martin] Salia was extremely critical when he arrived here, and unfortunately, despite our best efforts, we weren't able to save him."
The surgeon with Ebola was reportedly unconscious and critically ill when he was admitted into the biomedical center on Saturday. Although medical experts placed Dr. Martin Salia on dialysis and fitted a ventilator to assist with his respiration, his condition continued to worsen. Medics say the surgeon with Ebola even received blood transfusion from a survivor of the virus and also received doses of one of the highly rated experimental drugs available - Zmapp.
Dr. Martin Salia is the second person to die from the Ebola virus in the US. Last month, a Liberian national Thomas Eric Duncan died in a Dallas hospital after a short bout with the deadly virus. Currently, about eight people have been successfully treated from Ebola infections in the country.
"We are reminded today that even though this was the best possible place for an Ebola patient to be...even the best technologies that we have at our disposal are not enough to help these patients once they have reached a critical threshold," the chancellor of the University of Nebraska medical center, Dr. Jeffrey Gold, said.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), over 5,000 people have died from the Ebola virus since the latest outbreak commenced earlier in the year in West Africa. Over 10,000 people are also reported to have become infected with the virus.
Dr. Martin Salia was the chief medical officer of the Kissy United Methodist Hospital in Freetown, Sierra Leone. It is unclear how he was infected with Ebola because the virus had not been reported in the health center. Nonetheless, Kissy has since been shut down after the case of Dr. Martin Salia was confirmed. Reports indicate that the surgeon with Ebola was also working with at least three other medical centers in the country from which he may have also contracted the virus.
One of the two sons of the late surgeon with Ebola, who live in Maryland with their Mother, told NBC that although Dr. Martin Salia knew the risks of going to West Africa, he went nonetheless. "He decided to still go and help his people because he wanted to show that he loves his people," he said. "He's really, really a hero to me."
Mr. Martin Salia's wife Isatu has offered to reimburse the US government for the expenses incurred in transferring the surgeon with Ebola to Omaha from Freetown.
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