Another Ebola Victim Dies In US Hospital

Latest report says a surgeon from Sierra Leone has died at the Nebraska hospital where he was being treated for Ebola Virus Disease, EVD, after arriving from West Africa over the weekend.

Reuters reports that Dr. Martin Salia, a permanent U.S. resident, contracted the virus while working in a Freetown hospital.

A statement released moment ago by the hospital informed that the late Salia was suffering from advanced symptoms, including kidney and respiratory failure, when he arrived at the Nebraska Medical Center on Saturday.

Hospital spokesman Taylor Wilson said Salia died shortly after 4 a.m. Monday.

“Dr. Salia was extremely critical when he arrived here, and unfortunately, despite our best efforts, we weren’t able to save him,” said Dr. Phil Smith, medical director of the biocontainment unit. 

“We used every possible treatment available to give Dr. Salia every possible opportunity for survival,” Smith said. “As we have learned, early treatment with these patients is essential. In Dr. Salia’s case, his disease was already extremely advanced by the time he came here for treatment,”Dr. Smith added.

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

“We are so appreciate of the opportunity for my husband to be treated here and believe he was in the best place possible,”Salia said.

The Daily Mail had reported prior to Dr.Salia’s demise that he was diagnosed with Ebola on Monday and arrived in Omaha on Saturday to be treated at the Nebraska Medical Center’s biocontainment unit that has successfully treated two other Ebola patients this fall.

Dr Salia (pictured, second right, with his wife and sons) was born in Sierre Leone, but is a permanent resident of the U.S. who lives in Maryland with his family.

It was gathered from the hospital that the 44-year-old Salia might be more ill than the first Ebola patients successfully treated in the United States.

“This is an hour-by-hour situation,'” Smith said on Sunday, adding that a team of specialists is treating Salia’s most serious issues. “We will do everything humanly possible to help him fight this disease.” 

Ebola has killed more than 5,000 people in West Africa, mostly in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leona. Of the 10 people treated for the virus in the U.S., all but one has recovered.

There are currently no cases of Ebola in the United States, where nine people have been treated for the killer virus.Dr. Salia is the tenth.

Prior to Dr Salia’s death, only one – Liberian-born Thomas Eric Duncan – has died from the disease on U.S. soil.