Samaritan’s Purse doctor Kent Brantly, who contracted the Ebola virus while treating patients in Liberia, is now back home in the United States. A medical evacuation plane equipped with a special containment unit arrived at Dobbins Air Force Base in Atlanta today at 11:20 a.m. ET. Dr. Brantly was then transported to Emory University Hospital. Emory has an isolation unit set up in collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to treat patients who are exposed to serious infectious diseases. American Nancy Writebol, a missionary who also contracted Ebola in Liberia, is expected to arrive in Atlanta within the next few days.
“We thank God that they are alive and now have access to the best care in the world,” said Franklin Graham, president of Samaritan’s Purse. “We are extremely thankful for the help we have received from the State Department, the CDC, the National Institute of Health, World Health Organization and, of course, Emory Hospital.”
Brantly is a native of Indiana and a personal family friend. This is a guy who not only believes in the values and core beliefs of Never Settle, he is someone that was actively doing something about it. He, along with his family, was willing to leave all the comforts of the United States to use his talents as a physician to minister to the ‘least of these” in West Africa, serving as the medical director for Samaritan’s Purse Ebola Consolidated Management Center in Monrovia. I’m sure it would have been easier to continue his private practice in Ft. Worth, Texas and let someone else go and minister to the needs of the African people but since October 2013, Brantly followed his heart and has been serving and helping improve the lives of countless people in the center where he works.
Just this week, Brantly received a blood transfusion from a 14 year old Ebola survivor that he had personally helped treat. The young boy wanted to give back and help save the man’s life that had saved his. Conditions of both Brantly and Nancy are both considered grave and worsening this week. An experimental serum arrived in Africa to help treat the ailing patients but only one vial was delivered. Brantly insisted that Writebol receive the only dose available. This is just another testament to this man’s integrity and character.
As word that Brantly, now the first person to step on US soil with Ebola, spread so did the outrage and fear. The World Health Organization and the Center for Disease Control reiterate that extreme measures are being taken to transport the patients. A one of a kind aircraft is being used to isolate the patients in a tent-like structure called an aeromedical biological containment system, which allows officials to move highly contagious patients without fear of exposure to pathogens. Samaritan’s Purse is committed to taking precautions to exceed the standards recommended by the CDC.
Brantly is in for the fight of his life. This terrible disease has a 90% death rate which is why being flown back to his home country to receive the best possible treatment is imperative. There is no greater love than to lay down one’s life for his friends. Brantly has selflessly been giving his life to help people that literally cannot help themselves. Instead of coming home to a fight of outrage and fear, the bravery, character and integrity of this man should be received with lines of cheerful, thankful, applauding Americans for the service he has given to the people of West Africa. He was willing to help others, now it’s time for us to support him. Let’s make the fight about survival not about his arrival.
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