Dr. Martin Salia died on Monday from Ebola, the very disease he tried to save residents from in his native Sierra Leone, confirms a report from the Associated Press. Martin, a surgeon, was being treated at the Nebraska Medical Center.
“We really, really gave it everything we could,” said critical care specialist Dr. Dan Johnson in a news conference.
According to Dr. Salia’s doctors, he was already critically ill before arriving to the Center on Saturday, with respiratory and kidney failures.
Ten people in the U.S. have been treated for Ebola, and two of them were successfully treated at the same Nebraska Medical Center.
Dr. Phil Smith, medical director of the biocontainment unit at NMC, said, “We used every possible treatment available to give Dr. Salia every possible opportunity for survival.” Dr. Salia was placed on a ventilator to facilitate breathing, placed on dialysis for his kidneys and given a dose of the experimental drug, ZMapp, as well as a plasma transfusion from an Ebola survivor, reports NBC.
Dr. Smith believes this unfortunate case is another reminder of why early treatment is so critical to survival. The early warning signs of Ebola infection, which can appear anytime between 2 and 21 days of exposure, include:
Dr. Salia initially tested negative for the virus. He leaves behind a wife and two children in New Carrollton, MD.
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