The surgeon from Sierra Leone who caught the deadly Ebola virus has finally arrived in the United States on Saturday, November 15, in an airfield in Omaha, Nebraska. However, unlike Dr. Kent Brantly who walked out of the vehicle almost unaided, the doctor didn't have enough strength to stand, an indication he's already critically ill.
The 44-year-old Dr. Martin Salia is a native of Sierra Leone, although he holds a permanent U.S. residence. He currently lives in Maryland with his family. He's working in Kissy Hospital in Freetown, the capital of Sierra Leone, when he developed symptoms of the virus on November 6. He initially tested negative, but a few days after, he was officially diagnosed of the Ebola infection.
This forced the hospital to go into lockdown and for the patients to feel as soon as they heard of the news. Although the doctors aren't sure yet in what circumstance he obtained the virus, the doctor, who works as a surgeon, also provides his services in other health care facilities.
After being airlifted from West Africa, upon the request of his wife who promised the government to reimburse their expenses, Dr. Salia was immediately brought to Nebraska Medical Center, one of the four health care facilities in the United States designated to treat the virus, inside an ISOPOD. He will stay in a bio-containment unit in the hospital, which also treated other Ebola patients who are now well
According to the medical director Dr. Phil Smith, they are going to do everything they can to help the patient fight the disease.
Dr. Salia becomes the tenth patient to be treated of Ebola in the United States. Except for one, the rest have fully recovered and are now out of the hospital. The last one was Dr. Craig Spencer who received treatment in Bellevue Hospital in New York after contracting the virus in West Africa while working with Doctors without Borders.