Ebola arrives in America tomorrow on a fancy private jet

[aljdewey]

I'll confess I'm really torn on this......

While I'm sure they are taking every precaution possible, that may not be enough. It's been noted that both doctors were faithfully and rigorously following the CDC's recommended procedures to limit transmission when they became infected.

In other words - despite having *religiously* followed every CDC directive (including wearing safety suits), these two doctors still contracted the virus. If it can happen to them, what's to say it can't happen to others around them here once they're back?

That's what worries me - even the best laid plans can fail. Even the most conservative and stringent procedures are not fool-proof.

 

[msop04]

Please do not make up medical information, it benefits no one and contributes to fear mongering. Please also do not sully the reputations of every medical professional, in regards to their 'laziness.' A great number of us have studied for years and are quite capable of, and dedicated to, PPE and proper hand hygiene. The fact of the matter is that MRSA, VRE, ESBLs, etc are easy to spread because they are evolutionarily advanced. They can form slime layers, inhabit respiratory plastics, and even thrive in buckets of hospital-grade disinfectants.

To be accurate, meth resistant Sa is resistant to semisynthetic penicillins and is still treatable with a variety of antibiotics, including rifamycins, trimeth, clinda, and the tetras. It is far from 'incurable.'

Thank you for this, justginger.

 

[azstonie]

Yes, it is treatable but it is cannot be cured. Eventually, one becomes colonized with it.

 

[azstonie]

Yes, it is treatable but it is cannot be cured. Eventually, one becomes colonized with it.

To justginger, I wasn't thinking lazy, I was thinking understaffed and rushed, understaffed and not properly trained, understaffed and personnel working out of their job qualifications. Inadequate maintenance/use of equipment. Too rushed to follow protocols. Quite a few things, but not lazy although I suppose there can be that aspect to failing to follow protocols.

 

[justginger]

Yes, it is treatable but it is cannot be cured. Eventually, one becomes colonized with it.

This is also untrue. Once someone had been colonised it is difficult to clear, but entirely possible if the individual follows strict recommendations (basically sterilising their entire environment). Soap and water, bleach, hot laundry cycles, soft belongings out in the hot sunshine and it can be done. You'll just find that the carriers themselves, not the medical community, are too lazy to do what is necessary. Known carriers routinely test negative for years, only to become positive again through re-exposure.

 

[msop04]

Yes, it is treatable but it is cannot be cured. Eventually, one becomes colonized with it.

This is also untrue. Once someone had been colonised it is difficult to clear, but entirely possible if the individual follows strict recommendations (basically sterilising their entire environment). Soap and water, bleach, hot laundry cycles, soft belongings out in the hot sunshine and it can be done. You'll just find that the carriers themselves, not the medical community, are too lazy to do what is necessary. Known carriers routinely test negative for years, only to become positive again through re-exposure.

justginger's right... We see MRSA at least 1-2X/month. It's hard to get rid of and takes a long time, but it clears IF patients follow strict protocol. As stated above, those who have been cleared may test positive only after being exposed again.

 

[missy]

Both Americans are free of the Ebola virus, not a threat to anyone and have been released from the hospital!
It was 100% the best decision to bring them home to the USA and they are probably alive and well today because of it and have caused no harm to anyone. In fact, hopefully this will bring about a cure for all those people who will be affected in the future and possibly put an end to this horrible disease eventually. Fingers crossed.

 

[msop04]

Both Americans are free of the Ebola virus, not a threat to anyone and have been released from the hospital!
It was 100% the best decision to bring them home to the USA and they are probably alive and well today because of it and have caused no harm to anyone. In fact, hopefully this will bring about a cure for all those people who will be affected in the future and possibly put an end to this horrible disease eventually. Fingers crossed.

Thank goodness they're well!!!

 

[lioness]

a picture you won't soon forget. dr kent brantly says good bye to the team that saved him. #ebola pic.twitter.com/L7j66SUm4q
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[justginger]

A-freaking-men. I'm so very thankful that these two survived and we are a good step closer to having a viable treatment option. That photo is priceless.

 

[MissGotRocks]

I am so happy that these two people have been successfully treated! The American medical community got a chance to see and treat this disease firsthand - that can only translate into better care and treatment for the others infected.

 

[kenny]

I'm so glad these two brave people have recovered.
I wish them all the best.

I also stand by my opinion that bringing Ebola into North America what a horrible mistake, two live were not worth the risk to 318+ million, and it was stupid precedent to set.
The precedent means other infected individuals will be welcome, raising the odds of the bug getting out into the public.

Also, I read about the woman's first words while she left the hospital were something like, "Thanks be to God."
GMAFB lady !!!!

Uhm ... if there was a god you would not have gotten Ebola.
And where was your so-called 'god' when all those others did not survive Ebola?

Selective blindness
Religion just turns off brains.

 

[Trekkie]

I'm glad they were saved. I'm happy for them and their families, but I agree with Kenny and others: it was incredibly stupid to allow them into the US.

Oh, and you might find this interesting:

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/wwjtd/2014/08/patients-cured-of-ebola-by-doctors-is-about-as-far-from-miraculous-as-you-can-get/

 

[diamondseeker2006]

Kenny, there are many who do not share your opinions on God, and I am very happy to be one of them!

So thankful for these two selfless people to be well and back with their families! I read that the doctor plans to go on serving the poorest people without adequate healthcare. He has a lot of faith to dedicate his life in that way in spite of the danger. This world is a better place because of people like these two whether you share their faith or not!

 

[missy]

Kenny, there are many who do not share your opinions on God, and I am very happy to be one of them!

So thankful for these two selfless people to be well and back with their families! I read that the doctor plans to go on serving the poorest people without adequate healthcare. He has a lot of faith to dedicate his life in that way in spite of the danger. This world is a better place because of people like these two whether you share their faith or not!

I completely agree DS. I still don't understand how people don't get that we are under much more of a threat when someone comes here via commercial plane who is infected and not yet showing symptoms. There was virtually no risk bringing these Americans back home.

To quote JaneSmith and her priceless picture:

 

[diamondseeker2006]

I totally 100% agreed with you, Missy. I actually found the thread a little disturbing initially because I strongly agreed with bringing them to Emory so I did not post until now. You are so right that the real threat of the virus spreading is through international travel and someone in the early stages of the virus traveling somewhere else. I think people ought to be very GLAD that researchers here had the benefit of studying these two people even if they didn't care about the two Americans to begin with. I always considered it to be more like AIDS, and we just do not have to be paranoid about it. These two were most likely exposed outside of the hospital anyway. My daughter just spent 10 days volunteering at an orphanage in another part of Africa, and I was not afraid of sending here there unless the virus was active in her immediate area, which it was not.

 

[ksinger]

I agree that the there really is no risk to 318+ million people. We are not Africa. The culture here is different, sanitation is different, death customs are different, attitudes towards so many things are different. The reason ebola in Africa is SO lethal is not because it is so easily caught - if that were the case, then many many more would have died since its discovery in the 70s. It's because their culture and environment creates a perfect storm of resistance to the very things that might save them. You would never see that in this country. What you would see here is a run on bleach and matches. (tiny bitsy joke for a very unfunny topic)

As for the thanking God bit, I find myself doing a bit of an eyeroll too, although maybe not for exactly the same reasons or with quite the vehemence. Ever since 9/11, I've never forgotten this interview on Frontline. This rabbi summed it up pretty well for me. And his words work as well for this situation as for 9/11. If you are going to publicly say thank you to God for his plan that included your deliverance from whatever, you'd better have an answer for why others were not.

Rabbi BRAD HIRSCHFIELD, Orthodox Rabbi: Since September 11th, people keep asking me, "Where was God?" And they think because I'm a rabbi, I have answers. And I actually think that my job as a rabbi is to help them live with those questions. If God's ways are mysterious, live with the mystery. It's upsetting. It's scary. It's painful. It's deep. And it's interesting. No plan. That's what mystery is. It's all of those things.

You want plan? Then tell me about plan. But if you're going to tell me about how the plan saved you, you better also be able to explain how the plan killed them. And the test of that has nothing to do with saying it in your synagogue or your church. The test of that has to do with going and saying it to the person who just buried someone and look in their eyes and tell them God's plan was to blow your loved one apart. Look at them and tell them that God's plan was that their children should go to bed every night for the rest of their lives without a parent. And if you can say that, well, at least you're honest. I don't worship the same God, but that at least has integrity.

It's just it's too easy. That's my problem with the answer. Not that I think they're being inauthentic when people say it or being dishonest, it's just too damn easy. It's easy because it gets God off the hook. And it's easy because it gets their religious beliefs off the hook. And right now, everything is on the hook.

 

[arkieb1]

I honestly don't think US hospitals would have taken patients if they were not set up to fully cater for them in the first place, so I have no idea why there has been so much negative doom and gloom every man for himself type reaction here. Look at the pics of the two people as they walked out of hospital - they recovered. The hospital system in the US probably learned so much more by having them there under a safe controlled environment than it would if they arrived on a ship or a plane and spread it on the way to the US. They are also now many more steps closer to not only understanding but curing Ebola if god forbid there is ever a uncontrolled outbreak in the US. If we are taking about the common good here then the outcome of more knowledge and being better prepared is surely a good thing.

 

[ksinger]

I honestly don't think US hospitals would have taken patients if they were not set up to fully cater for them in the first place, so I have no idea why there has been so much negative doom and gloom every man for himself type reaction here. Look at the pics of the two people as they walked out of hospital - they recovered. The hospital system in the US probably learned so much more by having them there under a safe controlled environment than it would if they arrived on a ship or a plane and spread it on the way to the US. They are also now many more steps closer to not only understanding but curing Ebola if god forbid there is ever a uncontrolled outbreak in the US. If we are taking about the common good here then the outcome of more knowledge and being better prepared is surely a good thing.

PSST! It's fear. That thing that turns rational thought OFF.

The Dread Factor: Why Ebola And 'Contagion' Scare Us So Much
http://www.npr.org/blogs/goatsandsoda/2014/08/22/342243009/the-dread-factor-why-ebola-and-contagion-scare-us-so-much

 

[missy]

I agree that the there really is no risk to 318+ million people. We are not Africa. The culture here is different, sanitation is different, death customs are different, attitudes towards so many things are different. The reason ebola in Africa is SO lethal is not because it is so easily caught - if that were the case, then many many more would have died since its discovery in the 70s. It's because their culture and environment creates a perfect storm of resistance to the very things that might save them. You would never see that in this country. What you would see here is a run on bleach and matches. (tiny bitsy joke for a very unfunny topic)

As for the thanking God bit, I find myself doing a bit of an eyeroll too, although maybe not for exactly the same reasons or with quite the vehemence. Ever since 9/11, I've never forgotten this interview on Frontline. This rabbi summed it up pretty well for me. And his words work as well for this situation as for 9/11. If you are going to publicly say thank you to God for his plan that included your deliverance from whatever, you'd better have an answer for why others were not.

Rabbi BRAD HIRSCHFIELD, Orthodox Rabbi: Since September 11th, people keep asking me, "Where was God?" And they think because I'm a rabbi, I have answers. And I actually think that my job as a rabbi is to help them live with those questions. If God's ways are mysterious, live with the mystery. It's upsetting. It's scary. It's painful. It's deep. And it's interesting. No plan. That's what mystery is. It's all of those things.

You want plan? Then tell me about plan. But if you're going to tell me about how the plan saved you, you better also be able to explain how the plan killed them. And the test of that has nothing to do with saying it in your synagogue or your church. The test of that has to do with going and saying it to the person who just buried someone and look in their eyes and tell them God's plan was to blow your loved one apart. Look at them and tell them that God's plan was that their children should go to bed every night for the rest of their lives without a parent. And if you can say that, well, at least you're honest. I don't worship the same God, but that at least has integrity.

It's just it's too easy. That's my problem with the answer. Not that I think they're being inauthentic when people say it or being dishonest, it's just too damn easy. It's easy because it gets God off the hook. And it's easy because it gets their religious beliefs off the hook. And right now, everything is on the hook.

Karen, I hope it is OK to share this link with you. There are a number of good books explaining why bad things happen in the world. One of them is by Rabbi Harold Kushner. I read it a very long time ago but found it worthwhile.
http://www.amazon.com/When-Things-Happen-Good-People/dp/1400034728

Here is another explanation to answer your question.
http://judaism.about.com/library/3_askrabbi_o/bl_simmons_murder.htm

Even if you don't read the book by Rabbi Kushner the link above is a very worthwhile short read. I was going to summarize and post bits of it but I cannot do it justice. Short read and worth it IMO. Hope you agree.


DiamondSeeker, how wonderful of your daughter. I hope she had an experience of a lifetime and I am sure she touched many lives and vice versa.

 

[MissGotRocks]

Having faith in a higher being does not mean that you are magically given all of the answers. It means that you have chosen to have faith - which is a very intangible thing. We are all subject as well to the will of man and I don't believe that God makes these situations then decides who shall live or perish. These two people in particular were doing work that required their skill and their faith and I see them as being better than I because I don't know that I would have made the choice to go help that they did. If they believe through their faith and prayer that they were lifted up, then so be it. Their views may not work for everyone but it is grossly unfair to mock their faith. The faithful cannot possibly give answers for all of the evil situations that exist in the world - it is just not ours to know. It doesn't mean that they are naïve or working with blinders on as I'm sure they have considered other points of view as well. It is simply their CHOICE to believe and one that I believe deserves respect.

This disease is very scary and not well known. In my own heart, I don't think I could have completely said to leave them there and let them perish. I am very happy that this turned out well for them and hope in turn it helps others to overcome this disease. There is always a risk with these types of situations but if it was you - would you have hoped that help could or would have come for you? Or would you have been big enough to accept that you made the choice to go and therefore assumed all risk for yourself? Hard to know unless you were truly in their shoes.

 

[junebug17]

Kenny, I reported your post but it had already been reported. IIRC religion is not supposed to be discussed on PS.

edited to delete my own religious views, not relevant.

 

[ksinger]

I agree that the there really is no risk to 318+ million people. We are not Africa. The culture here is different, sanitation is different, death customs are different, attitudes towards so many things are different. The reason ebola in Africa is SO lethal is not because it is so easily caught - if that were the case, then many many more would have died since its discovery in the 70s. It's because their culture and environment creates a perfect storm of resistance to the very things that might save them. You would never see that in this country. What you would see here is a run on bleach and matches. (tiny bitsy joke for a very unfunny topic)

As for the thanking God bit, I find myself doing a bit of an eyeroll too, although maybe not for exactly the same reasons or with quite the vehemence. Ever since 9/11, I've never forgotten this interview on Frontline. This rabbi summed it up pretty well for me. And his words work as well for this situation as for 9/11. If you are going to publicly say thank you to God for his plan that included your deliverance from whatever, you'd better have an answer for why others were not.

Rabbi BRAD HIRSCHFIELD, Orthodox Rabbi: Since September 11th, people keep asking me, "Where was God?" And they think because I'm a rabbi, I have answers. And I actually think that my job as a rabbi is to help them live with those questions. If God's ways are mysterious, live with the mystery. It's upsetting. It's scary. It's painful. It's deep. And it's interesting. No plan. That's what mystery is. It's all of those things.

You want plan? Then tell me about plan. But if you're going to tell me about how the plan saved you, you better also be able to explain how the plan killed them. And the test of that has nothing to do with saying it in your synagogue or your church. The test of that has to do with going and saying it to the person who just buried someone and look in their eyes and tell them God's plan was to blow your loved one apart. Look at them and tell them that God's plan was that their children should go to bed every night for the rest of their lives without a parent. And if you can say that, well, at least you're honest. I don't worship the same God, but that at least has integrity.

It's just it's too easy. That's my problem with the answer. Not that I think they're being inauthentic when people say it or being dishonest, it's just too damn easy. It's easy because it gets God off the hook. And it's easy because it gets their religious beliefs off the hook. And right now, everything is on the hook.

Karen, I hope it is OK to share this link with you. There are a number of good books explaining why bad things happen in the world. One of them is by Rabbi Harold Kushner. I read it a very long time ago but found it worthwhile.
http://www.amazon.com/When-Things-Happen-Good-People/dp/1400034728

Here is another explanation to answer your question.
http://judaism.about.com/library/3_askrabbi_o/bl_simmons_murder.htm

Even if you don't read the book by Rabbi Kushner the link above is a very worthwhile short read. I was going to summarize and post bits of it but I cannot do it justice. Short read and worth it IMO. Hope you agree.


DiamondSeeker, how wonderful of your daughter. I hope she had an experience of a lifetime and I am sure she touched many lives and vice versa.

It's perfectly OK Missy, and I may indeed take a quick look. But I'm not really asking the question about why bad things happen. I long ago came to my own conclusions on that. I posted Rabbi Hirschfield because his answer as a religious person to other religious people, (which I am not, and have become ever less so as the years have moved on) for why thanking God loudly in public is fraught, was meaty, and deeply honest. You don't hear that much in my part of the world.

 

[msop04]

Having faith in a higher being does not mean that you are magically given all of the answers. It means that you have chosen to have faith - which is a very intangible thing. We are all subject as well to the will of man and I don't believe that God makes these situations then decides who shall live or perish. These two people in particular were doing work that required their skill and their faith and I see them as being better than I because I don't know that I would have made the choice to go help that they did. If they believe through their faith and prayer that they were lifted up, then so be it. Their views may not work for everyone but it is grossly unfair to mock their faith. The faithful cannot possibly give answers for all of the evil situations that exist in the world - it is just not ours to know. It doesn't mean that they are naïve or working with blinders on as I'm sure they have considered other points of view as well. It is simply their CHOICE to believe and one that I believe deserves respect.

This disease is very scary and not well known. In my own heart, I don't think I could have completely said to leave them there and let them perish. I am very happy that this turned out well for them and hope in turn it helps others to overcome this disease. There is always a risk with these types of situations but if it was you - would you have hoped that help could or would have come for you? Or would you have been big enough to accept that you made the choice to go and therefore assumed all risk for yourself? Hard to know unless you were truly in their shoes.

+1
Well said, MGR...

 

[momhappy]

Initially, I had mixed feelings about bringing the infected doctors here (I knew that the risk was very slim, but still a risk nonetheless). Now knowing the benefits, however, I think that the right choice was made to treat them here.

 

[missy]

Interesting piece about the timeline for those who are interested.
http://www.webmd.com/news/20140822/ebola-medical-drama

Ebola: A Medical Drama Unfolds
By Brenda Goodman, MA
WebMD Health News Reviewed by Brunilda Nazario, MD
Aug. 22, 2014 -- Ebola has been raging through the West African countries of Guinea, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, and Liberia for nearly 9 months. With 2,615 cases and 1,427 deaths so far, it’s the deadliest single outbreak of Ebola yet, according to the most recent update from the World Health Organization. At the current rate of illness, experts project the numbers from this epidemic will soon eclipse total cases and deaths of all other documented Ebola outbreaks combined.

It’s also the first time Ebola infection has touched U.S. shores, igniting the public’s interest along with its worst fears.

This is the story of how the epidemic started and the dramatic rescue effort that brought two infected Americans home.

Oct. 15, 2013 -- Dr. Kent Brantly, his wife Amber, who is a nurse, and their two children depart for Liberia to serve a 2-year medical mission with the nonprofit relief agency Samaritan’s Purse. He is posted at ELWA Hospital in Monrovia.

“Ebola was not on the radar,” Brantly says.

Dec. 6, 2013 -- A 2-year-old child dies in Guinea from a rapidly advancing illness that includes fever, black stool, and vomiting. A 3-year-old sister, their mother, grandmother, and great aunt also die after having the same symptoms.

Jan. 25, 2014 -- The village midwife who treated the family in Guinea, as well as many others in the area, is hospitalized. She dies 8 days later.

March 10 -- Hospitals and clinics around Gueckedou and Macenta, an area that touches the borders of Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone, alert the Guinea government’s Ministry of Health to an outbreak of infectious disease characterized by fever, severe diarrhea, and vomiting.

March 12 -- Local teams from Medecins sans Frontieres, MSF, also known as Doctors Without Borders, are alerted to the outbreak. They notify their European office.

March 18 -- Disease detectives from MSF arrive to take blood samples for testing. The samples are sent to biosafety labs in France and Germany for analysis. Tests confirm the Zaire strain of the Ebola virus, with an initial 86% death rate.

End of March -- Investigators count 111 suspected cases and 79 deaths.

One of the main ways the virus is spread is through local burial customs that involve kissing a corpse.

“In the hours after death with Ebola, that is when the body is most infectious, because the body is loaded with the virus. Everybody who touches the corpse is another infection,” Ken Isaacs, vice president of programs and governmental relations for Samaritan’s Purse, said in congressional testimony.

Brantly says the medical team at ELWA hospital first learned the Ebola infection had spread to Liberia in March.

June 2014 -- The medical team at ELWA hospital treats its first Ebola patient. “We began preparing for the worst,” Brantly says. “We were ready.”

June to July -- The number of Ebola patients treated at ELWA hospital increases steadily. “Our amazing crew at ELWA Hospital took care of each patient with great care and compassion. We also took every precaution to protect ourselves from this dreaded disease,” Brantly says.

July 20 -- Brantly takes his wife and children to the airport for a planned visit to the U.S. After they left, “I poured myself into my work even more than before.”

July 22 -- Dr. Sheik Umar Khan, the doctor leading the fight against Ebola in Sierra Leone, learns from a test he's caught the virus. He is quarantined in a medical ward run by MSF.

Doctors that work for the WHO offer Khan’s medical team an experimental drug that’s never been given to people. It’s called ZMapp. They have a small box of frozen samples.

“There was only one box of drugs in the whole African continent” that might fight the disease, says Richard Furman, MD, a retired surgeon and co-founder of World Medical Mission, the health care arm of Samaritan’s Purse.

Hoping Khan could pull through on his own, his doctors declined the treatment.

“They decided it was too much risk,” Furman says.

July 23 -- Brantly says he wakes up feeling “under the weather.” He isolates himself at the hospital.

July 26 -- Brantly and Nancy Writebol, a missionary serving as a personnel coordinator for SIM, another medical missions organization, are confirmed as having Ebola, according to Ken Isaacs.

“He [Brantly] is such a meticulous physician. He does everything almost to perfection. I just couldn’t believe that he had gotten it,” Furman recalls.

For Furman, the news was especially hard to bear. He had helped to make the decision to send the Brantlys to Liberia.

“It’s a tough time to realize that someone we chose to go could be dying from Ebola. It was just a tough time,” he recalls.

Samaritan’s Purse is offered the same box of frozen ZMapp serum samples that was extended to Khan’s care team. They take it.

July 29 -- Dr. Sheik Umar Khan dies in Sierra Leone.

July 31 -- With his condition deteriorating rapidly, Brantly is given a dose of the experimental treatment, ZMapp.

Furman gets updates via telephone every 6 to 8 hours from Lance Plyler, MD, the doctor treating Brantly in Africa.

Plyler tells Furman that Brantly’s temperature is “sky high” and his breathing is rapid at 40 respirations per minute. Normally adults take 12 to 16 breaths per minute.

“Our doctor there said he didn’t think he was going to make it. That was the first time they ever said that,” Furman recalls.

“That’s when he got the medicine,” Furman says. “And it was remarkable. His temperature starts down and his breathing started slowing down, and for the first time, he said, ‘I think I’m going to make it.’”

Writebol is also given a dose of ZMapp, though her response was not as dramatic.

5pm, July 31 -- A jet equipped with a special isolation pod is dispatched from an airfield in Cartersville, GA, to evacuate the American Ebola patients from Liberia, according to CNN reporters who witnessed the plane’s takeoff.

The plane can carry only one passenger at a time.

“There is only one airplane in the world with one chamber to carry a level-4 pathogenic disease victim,” Isaacs said during his congressional testimony. “That plane is in the United States. There is no other aircraft in the world that I can find. That means the U.S. does not have the capacity to evacuate its citizens in any significant mass.”

Samaritan’s Purse realizes that if any more of its workers get sick, they will effectively be stranded.

“The idea was, ‘What if all of a sudden eight or ten start getting it?’ You know, that runs through your mind, what can happen,” Furman says.

A decision is made by the organization to get out, regroup, and go back. Samaritan’s Purse decides to bring all non-essential personnel home.

Aug. 2 -- Brantly arrives at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta for treatment and becomes the first patient ever treated for Ebola infection on U.S. soil.

Furman says Brantly’s return to the U.S. was a great personal relief.

“As a doctor, what I didn’t realize is that Ebola can shut down the liver and the kidneys. If you shut down the kidneys over there, he’s dead,” Furman says. “There is no dialysis or anything like that.”

At Emory, at least, he could get dialysis if he needed it. But it turns out Brantly isn’t sick enough to need that kind of help. In a now-famous photograph, he stuns the world by walking off the ambulance and into the hospital.

“For him to walk instead of them carrying him, just that was a big deal [for Brantly],” Furman says. “He’s an eager-type person. He’s very upbeat.”

Aug. 3 -- Writebol is given a second dose of ZMapp.

Aug. 4 -- The plane and isolation pod return to Liberia to pick Writebol up. The flight takes off in the early morning hours.

Aug. 5 -- Writebol arrives for treatment at Emory. Bruce Johnson, the president of SIM USA, describes her condition in a press conference as “very weak.” She is wheeled into the hospital on a stretcher.

Like Brantly, she is treated in the hospital’s special bio-containment unit, one of only four such wards in the country capable of isolating highly infectious patients. The other units are at the Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha; St. Patrick Hospital in Missoula, MT; and the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD.

In a statement from Liberia, where he is still under quarantine, Writebol’s husband, David, says: “A week ago we were thinking about making funeral arrangements for Nancy. Now we have a real reason to be hopeful.”

Aug. 19 -- After 2 weeks of treatment, Writebol is quietly discharged from Emory.

Aug. 21 -- The dozens of doctors and nurses who treated the two Americans at Emory line the halls of the hospital as Brantly is released from the isolation unit. He high-fives and hugs the medical team as he leaves.

“Today is a miraculous day,” he says later at a news conference.

 

[diamondseeker2006]

Having faith in a higher being does not mean that you are magically given all of the answers. It means that you have chosen to have faith - which is a very intangible thing. We are all subject as well to the will of man and I don't believe that God makes these situations then decides who shall live or perish. These two people in particular were doing work that required their skill and their faith and I see them as being better than I because I don't know that I would have made the choice to go help that they did. If they believe through their faith and prayer that they were lifted up, then so be it. Their views may not work for everyone but it is grossly unfair to mock their faith. The faithful cannot possibly give answers for all of the evil situations that exist in the world - it is just not ours to know. It doesn't mean that they are naïve or working with blinders on as I'm sure they have considered other points of view as well. It is simply their CHOICE to believe and one that I believe deserves respect.

This disease is very scary and not well known. In my own heart, I don't think I could have completely said to leave them there and let them perish. I am very happy that this turned out well for them and hope in turn it helps others to overcome this disease. There is always a risk with these types of situations but if it was you - would you have hoped that help could or would have come for you? Or would you have been big enough to accept that you made the choice to go and therefore assumed all risk for yourself? Hard to know unless you were truly in their shoes.

+1
Well said, MGR...

+100. Thank you!

 

[diamondseeker2006]

Thank you, Missy!

 

[missy]

As many of you probably already know someone in the US is infected with Ebola just how I and others here thought it would go. Not from being intentionally brought into the US for treatment but someone who had traveled in Liberia and unintentionally and unwittingly traveled back here via commercial airplane and a few days later started showing symptoms.


http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2014/oct/01/ebola-case-confirmed-in-us/

 

[arkieb1]

It has been all over our news and as far as I can see this is far more alarming than the people that first arrived in a contained controlled way. They are now trying to track anyone that might have potentially been infected. Thankfully he wasn't showing any symptoms on the flight so the poor air hostesses (and anyone else that might have wiped out the toilets and pick up trash containing bodily fluids) were not exposed.