“It is with an extremely heavy heart that we share this news,” said Dr. Philip Smith, the medical director of the biocontainment unit at the 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.”
Dr. Salia, who is a citizen of Sierra Leone but lives in Maryland, had been working as a general surgeon at Kissy United Methodist Hospital in Sierra Leone’s capital, Freetown. It was not clear where he had come in contact with Ebola patients. Five other doctors in Sierra Leone have contracted Ebola; all have died.
A hospital spokeswoman, Taylor Wilson, said that Dr. Salia died about 4 a.m. Monday. He came down with symptoms of the virus on Nov. 6 but initially tested negative. He tested positive a week ago.
In a statement, the hospital said that Dr. Salia was suffering from advanced symptoms of Ebola, including kidney and respiratory failure, when he arrived on Saturday. Treatments, the statement said, included kidney dialysisand ventilation as well as a blood plasma transfusion from a patient who has recovered from Ebola and an experimental drug, ZMapp.
“As we have learned, early treatment with these patients is essential,” Dr. Smith. said. “In Dr. Salia’s case, his disease was already extremely advanced by the time he came here for treatment.”
Dr. Salia is the second patient to die of Ebola in the United States, both of whom contracted the disease while in West Africa. The first, Thomas Eric Duncan, died in early October at a Dallas hospital after coming to the United States from Liberia. Dr. Salia was the third Ebola patient who was treated in Omaha and the 10th known patient in the United States. Two patients — the nurses Nina Pham and Amber Joy Vinson — were infected while treating Mr. Duncan in Dallas.
