Ebola Patient Dies In Nebraska

Dr. Martin Salia, who was being treated for Ebola after caring for patients in Sierra Leone, died Monday. He is the second person to die of Ebola in the U.S.

Dr. Martin Salia, a surgeon who contracted Ebola after treating patients in Sierra Leone, died Monday, the Nebraska Medical Center said in a statement.

He died shortly after 4 a.m. "as a result of the advanced symptoms of the disease," the hospital said. He is the second person to die of Ebola in the U.S.

Salia arrived in Nebraska on Saturday afternoon in an "extremely critical condition," which included kidney and respiratory failure.

"Dr. Salia was extremely critical when he arrived here, and unfortunately, despite our best efforts, we weren't able to save him," Dr. Phil Smith, the medical director of the biocontainment unit at Nebraska Medical Center, said in a statement.

Salia, 44, a Sierra Leone native, was a permanent resident of the U.S. and was married to a U.S. citizen.

He was treated at the same biocontainment unit where two other patients were treated and cured: Dr. Richard Sacra and Ashoka Mukpo, a news cameraman.

"In the short time we spent here, it was apparent how caring and compassionate everyone was," Isatu Salia, Salia's wife said in a statement. "We are so appreciative of the opportunity for my husband to be treated here and believe he was in the best place possible." The couple has two children, 12 and 20.

Salia was placed on dialysis, a ventilator, and multiple medications to support his organ systems. He also received ZMapp therapy and a dose of convalescent plasma from one of the doctors who was treated for Ebola at the center.

However, he was unresponsive and suffered from complete respiratory failure and severely low blood pressure, Dr.Daniel Johnson, who was part of the medical team treating Salia, said in a press conference Monday. He then underwent cardiac arrest and died.

"We used every possible treatment available to give Dr. Salia every possible opportunity for survival," Smith said. "In Dr. Salia's case, his disease was already extremely advanced by the time he came here for treatment."

In a statement, President Obama said Salia's death is "another reminder of the human toll of this disease."

Salia's friends and co-workers in Sierra Leone had hugged him after his first Ebola test came back negative early November.

After Salia's first Ebola test came back negative, his friends in Sierra Leone embraced him without their protective gear, the Washington Post reported. After his symptoms persisted, he took another test a week later that came back positive. His colleagues, who had celebrated with him, were forced into quarantine.

"We were celebrating. If the test says you are Ebola-free, we assume you are Ebola-free," Komba Songu M'Briwa, who cared for Salia at the Ebola treatment center in Freetown, told the Washington Post. "Then everything fell apart."

The center where Salia treated patients is now shut down. Salia's doctors in Sierra Leone were reportedly unaware that an Ebola test taken within the first three days of the illness can be inconclusive.

More than 300 Sierra Leonean health workers have died of the disease since the outbreak began in West Africa.

Thomas Eric Duncan was the first Ebola death in the U.S. Duncan, who contracted the disease in Liberia, died in Texas in October. Two nurses, who contracted the disease while caring for Duncan, survived the virus.

Dr. Craig Spencer, an American health care worker who contracted Ebola in Guinea, was declared free of the virus in New York on Nov. 11.

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