Excerpted from "Ebola-infected physician dies in Nebraska," USA Today, November 17, 2014, - A surgeon infected with Ebola while treating patients in Sierra Leone has died in Omaha, Nebraska Medical Center announced Monday. Martin Salia, whose family lives in Maryland, arrived in Omaha on Saturday for treatment at the specialized biocontainment unit. He became ill Nov. 6 and tested positive for Ebola a week ago. Before his dad died, the son of Doctor Martin Salia said treating patients infected with Ebola was his "calling from God."
"It is with an extremely heavy heart that we share this news," Phil Smith, medical director of the Biocontainment Unit at the hospital, said in the statement. "Dr. Salia was extremely critical when he arrived here, and unfortunately, despite our best efforts, we weren't able to save him."
Smith said Salia was suffering from advanced symptoms of Ebola when he arrived, including kidney and respiratory failure. He was placed on dialysis, required a ventilator and received plasma, Smith said. Multiple medications included ZMapp therapy, a new drug that has shown promise in fighting the disease.
Salia is the second person to die of Ebola in the United States. A Liberian man living in Texas, Thomas Eric Duncan, contracted the disease in his native country but was not diagnosed until after his return to Dallas. He died Oct. 8.
Salia's wife, Isatu Salia, has said that her husband believed he had malaria or typhoid when he fell ill Nov. 6. Her husband had two negative tests for Ebola before the third came back positive Nov. 10, she said. Isatu Salia said her husband's voice sounded weak and shaky when they spoke early Friday. But she said he told her, "I love you."
Salia said her husband traveled frequently between the United States and his native Sierra Leone. He never stayed in the U.S. long because he believed people in Africa need him, she said. Ebola has killed more than 5,000 people in West Africa, mostly in Liberia, Sierra Leona and Guinea.
| Commentary |
Professor of Clinical Medicine at Georgetown University
Medical Center and CMDA Campus Advisor Allen H. Roberts II, MD, MDiv:
“With heavy hearts the news of Dr. Martin Salia’s death was shared, and with
heavy hearts it is received. Most keenly is his death felt by his wife and sons,
to whom our hearts and for whom our prayers go out, but it is felt deeply and
dearly by his CMDA family as well. We pause in the midst of our daily rounds and
of our own Ebola preparations to think about our brother in Christ, the life he
lived and the death he died – both in the service of the Lord he loved.“Martin’s predicament confirms what we are learning about Ebola. Patients who arrive at U.S. medical centers early in the course of the illness and are treated with aggressive fluid and electrolyte administration fare better. Many hospitals are developing protocols and ethics statements reflecting that with appropriate disease-containment interventions, the disease, when treated early, is survivable and containable.
“Dr. Salia’s death also came in the aftermath of an appeal that went out to CMDA members that we pray without ceasing for his recovery, and scores of members did just that. Yet, this dear brother died.
“Now is a good time to remember Jesus at the tomb of Lazarus (John 11:17-44). We may join Martha and Mary in their deep sorrow; we may join Jesus Himself in absolute indignation and anger over the death of a friend.
“And we are invited, then, to listen to Jesus utter these most astonishing words, “I am the resurrection and the life…” (John 11:25, NIV 2011). It was in the certain hope of the resurrection that Martin Salia responded to God’s call to minister to those with Ebola in Sierra Leone. He counted the cost, and he went.
“We know how the story ends for Lazarus and how it will end for Martin Salia and all who are in Christ. It may be in the months ahead that God in His mercy will lead us to an effective treatment for this dreaded disease. We don’t know. But it was on the cross that the fate of Ebola was sealed, along with that of all disease and all death in all history. Jesus’ tomb is empty, and so will be Martin’s.”
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Ebola: ‘Beat the fire while it is far’ by Dr. David Stevens Ebola and Medical Missionaries
CMA VP for Government Relations Jonathan Imbody:
“Activist electioneering is hard but potentially productive work, and this round
of advertising, phone calling and one-on-one conversations leading up to the
November 4 elections paid off for the pro-life cause. The House of
Representatives gained at least seven pro-life members, and the Senate's switch
of party control (the GOP will have at least a 53-47 edge, with not all races
decided) means that pro-life bills now should at least gain a vote.
CMDA CEO David Stevens, MD, MA (Ethics): “I’m
deeply saddened by Brittany Maynard’s suicide. As far as we know, she had no
hope—despite Joni Erickson Tada, Kara Tippets (who is dying with Stage 4 breast
cancer) and others pointing her toward God, our real source of hope. I’m
saddened because Compassion and Choices used and possibly abused her as their
‘poster child’ for legalizing physician-assisted suicide in a slick media
campaign that drew millions of Facebook and YouTube hits, as well as enormous
favorable media attention. I can’t help but wonder why she announced she was
going to postpone her suicide, only to take her life two days later? Did she
feel pressured or obligated to do it?
CMDA Member and Board Certified Obstetrics and Gynecology C.
Brent Boles, MD: “The votes have been counted and Amendment 1 is now
part of Tennessee’s Constitution. This amendment corrects the poor decision made
by the Tennessee Supreme Court in 2000 in Planned Parenthood v.
Sundquist, in which four of five justices decided that Tennessee’s
Constitution had stronger protections for abortion than the U.S. Constitution.
Since that decision, the Tennessee legislature has been unable to pass
meaningful regulation having to do with abortion in our state. As a result, the
abortion industry was not accountable to the state’s Department of Health in any
significant way. Now, the Tennessee legislature can work to protect vulnerable
women from being victimized by the abortion industry and reduce the number of
innocent babies lost every year in Tennessee. I hope we will see a restoration
of a standard informed consent process and a brief waiting period, as well as
the health department’s ability to enforce the same patient safety standards
respected by all of legitimate medicine.
CMDA Member and Chief of Infectious Diseases at Moffitt
Cancer Center John N. Greene, MD: “The majority of people, including
healthcare workers, favor the quarantine of those who care for patients infected
with the Ebola virus, both at home and those returning from West Africa. This
paradox exists despite the clear scientific evidence pointing to a lack of
contagion of the asymptomatic but exposed person. The fear and hysteria created
by the Ebola epidemic is unprecedented.