Martin Salia, Ebola-stricken surgeon from Sierra Leone, dies in Nebraska hospital
Martin Salia, a doctor who contracted the Ebola virus while treating patients in Sierra Leone, died Monday morning 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, where his wife and two children live, 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 in Nebraska that same day, he was already suffering from kidney and respiratory failure. He died at about 4 a.m. local time Monday, 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 Carrollton, 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.”
She traveled to Nebraska over the weekend but was able to see her husband only through a video connection set up by the hospital, a Nebraska Medical Center spokesman said.
According to the United Methodist News Service, Isatu Salia said she paid for the $200,000 ticket to fly her husband from Sierra Leone to the United States for treatment. The United Methodist Great Plains Conference is reportedly raising money to help cover the cost of travel and medical expenses.
Salia contracted the virus in Sierra Leone, where he was the chief medical officer and surgeon at the Kissy United Methodist Hospital in the capital city of Freetown. He also worked at several other hospitals in Sierra Leone.
After Salia initially tested negative for the virus, his colleagues embraced him, celebrating the good news. The hospital has since been shuttered and three of his colleagues are being isolated over Ebola fears. It is still unclear how he contracted the deadly Ebola virus, which had killed nearly 5,200 people worldwide through Nov. 11, according to the World Health Organization.
Salia becomes only the second person to die of Ebola in the United States. The first, Thomas Eric Duncan, died at a Dallas hospital after contracting the virus in Liberia and then flying to the United States. Five other patients who contracted the virus in West Africa but were treated in U.S. hospitals all survived the illness, as did two nurses who were stricken with Ebola while treating Duncan in Dallas.
Most recently, an American doctor, Craig Spencer, was discharged fromNew York’s Bellevue Hospital Center, where he’d been treated for Ebola. Spencer’s positive diagnosis came after he’d returned to the United States from Guinea.
The Nebraska Medical Center is expected to hold a news conference Monday morning.
[This post has been updated.]
Abby Phillip is a general assignment national reporter for the Washington Post. She can be reached atabby.phillip@washpost.com. On Twitter: @abbydphillip
