Martin Salia, a doctor who contracted the Ebola virus while treating patients in Sierra Leone, died on Monday while receiving treatment in Omaha.
Salia was in “extremely critical condition” after he was evacuated in a specially equipped air ambulance for treatment in the United States at the Nebraska Medical Center, which has a state-of-the-art isolation facility equipped for treating Ebola patients.
A native of Sierra Leone with ties to Maryland, Salia had initially tested negative for the virus; but a subsequent test came back positive on Nov. 10.
Salia was treated with the blood of an Ebola survivor as well as the experimental treatment ZMapp, which was initiated on Saturday the hospital said. When he arrived at Nebraska Saturday, he was already suffering from kidney and respiratory failure. He died at about 4 a.m. local time, according to the hospital.
“It is with an extremely heavy heart that we share this news,” said Phil Smith, medical director of the Biocontainment Unit at Nebraska Medical Center. “Dr. Salia was extremely critical when he arrived here, and unfortunately, despite our best efforts, we weren’t able to save him.”
Smith added: “We used every possible treatment available to give Dr. Salia every possible opportunity for survival. 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.”
In a statement, Salia’s wife, Isatu Salia, who lives in New Carrolton, Md., thanked the hospital’s staff for trying to save her husband’s life.
“We’re very grateful for the efforts of the team led by Dr. Smith,” she said. “In the short time we spent here, it was apparent how caring and compassionate everyone was. We are so appreciative of the opportunity for my husband to be treated here and believe he was in the best place possible.”
Salia contracted the virus while working as a surgeon in Freetown’s Hastings Ebola Treatment Center. After Salia initially tested negative for the virus, his colleagues embraced him, celebrating the good news. Now, the treatment center has since been shuttered and three of his colleagues are being isolated over Ebola fears.
He becomes only the second person to die of Ebola in the U.S. The first, Thomas Eric Duncan, died at a Dallas hospital after contracting the virus in Liberia and traveling to the U.S. Five other patients who contracted the virus in West Africa but were treated in U.S. hospitals all survived the illness.
Most recently an American doctor, Craig Spencer, was discharged from New York City’s Bellevue Hospital Center where he was being treated for Ebola.
The hospital is expected to hold a press conference on Monday morning.
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