Oh, I guess these guys and the six million like them just weren't "righteous" enough.
Posted on 07/29/2014 12:13:32 PM PDT by afraidfortherepublic
A doctor from Texas is in grave condition and terrified for his life after he contracted the incurable Ebola virus he was treating in West Africa, colleagues said Monday.
Dr. Kent Brantley, 33, is one of two Americans in the region who have contracted the deadly disease, which has now killed nearly 700 people in West Africa, according to the World Health Organization.
The father of two had been treating Ebola victims in Monrovia, Liberia, when he began to notice symptoms related to the virus, CBS reports.
“I’m praying fervently that God will help me survive this disease,” he said in an email sent to his colleague, Dr. David Mcray, who worked with Brantly at John Peter Smith Hospital in Fort Worth.
Modal Trigger Brantly with his wife and their two childrenPhoto: Facebook
He also requested that people send their prayers and well-wishes to Nancy Writebol, his co-worker at the hospital and second American doctor to contract the disease in Liberia.
Despite being scared for his life, family and friends said he had no regrets and was well aware of the numerous risks he faced when he chose to treat the dangerous epidemic.
“Kent prepared himself to be a lifetime medical missionary,” said his mother, Jan Brantly.
“His heart is in Africa.”
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Good grief....they’re making it sound like Ebola is the Calcutta Plague.
If you think for a moment you'll realize that that's an inadequate analogy.Others don't benefit from the work of mountain climbers.Yes,he certainly would have realized that there was risk involved but then soldiers and firemen,among others,know of the risks before signing up.
Two words:
Spanish flu.
Agree, I wish they had quarantined the family as well. Why didn’t they? My guesses are as follows:
1. to prevent panic in the U.S.
2. to protect the family from being ostracized...after all their names are now in the press
3. because they are functioning on the “hope” that the disease is not communicable when asymptomatic, this disturbs me in this context because while CDC seems certain it is the case, they are unable to explain how he contracted the disease in the first place.
There are two men and one woman....all Americans, with the disease.
One of the men...(not sure of his status there) was actually allowed to board a commercial airline.....got sick in flight.and started throwing up..(I don’t think he had anything to do with mission work)....they landed him in Lagos, Nigeria and he died......He leaves a family in Minnesota.
Kent, the doctor, is from Texas.....
And there’s another missionary, a woman.....who has been in the mission field 20 years.....I don’t know where she’s from.
A few years ago the local newspaper published a letter my Grandfather had written to the paper back in 1918. One thing which caught my attention was he mentioned how sad it was for so many of his friends back home to have died.
It was a few days later that it hit me. The Spanish Flu outbreak of 1918 was what he was talking about.
I agree, blessings to him and his family. But I have to ask am I the only one that wondered how Doctor Who contracted the disease and what was he doing in Africa, and where is the Tardis?
You just made my point. If you make dangerous decisions, climbing a mountain, fireman, soldier, etc. there are dangerous consequences. I noted the nobility in his actions in my post but dangerous is dangerous. Your error was taking my analogy out of context...
Damn! I knew I would be late to the party.
Sending Prayers.
The good news for the rest of us is that transmission of the disease is almost always associated with close physical contact between someone who is healthy, or at least free of ebola, and something that’s infected, human or animal.
So health care workers have to be really careful to avoid direct contact with infected blood and other bodily fluids, etc.
You and I would have a much better chance of surviving than these saint/doctors because, at least in my case, I will turn around and run screaming in the opposite direction away from anything that so much as sniffles near me during an outbreak!
What I have read is that Ebola is transmitted by all bodily fluids. My eye doctor does these medical trips to G-d awful places and donates a week of his time. He is a great guy and his wife is a dear friend of mine. Stay safe Bill!
Should he have kept his family in the USA so his daughter might be "discovered" by a Disney talent scout and grow up to be like Miley Cyrus? A drunk driver hit them on the interstate highway?
Life is full of various dangers, no matter where you live. Seek to be in God's will for you & your family. Talk it over with the entire family so that they all understand. Pray about it together.
During our time in Africa, our entire family was ambushed leading to one daughter developing a stress related heart condition (temporary), I was shot at a few more times, we had to pull a dozen Bot Fly maggots from under our 11 month old daughter's skin, several family members had malaria, several had hepatitis, the slums across the railroad tracks from us had outbreaks of cholera and bubonic plague and we had times when we could not buy milk, cheese, flour or corn meal in the shops.
Our four children are all between 34 and 40 now. Each have repeatedly thanked my wife & I, saying that growing up in Africa was one of the finest things that has ever happened to them.
The survival rate is about 40 percent.
I question they didn’t know he had become infected before his wife and kids flew back to the US. The wedding is for his side of the family in Indiana and he was supposed to meet his newborn nephew according to the Brantly family blog that was linked on FR yesterday. Smells suspiciously like he sent the family out of the danger zone. Don’t you know he probably kissed them goodbye. I also noticed the article failed to mention the wife is a nurse and gave hospital patients their meals. Guess we’ll know in 21 days.
I didn’t know his wife and children were with him. Did he go to Africa to treat Ebola patients or was he there for another disease when this disease sprang up?
I have such a bad/low opinion of Africa that you could not give me a trip there.
I know people who go there on vacation and think it is the greatest place on earth. My sis-in-law is one of them.
Reminds me of the old Black Plague with such poor survival rates. Pray it doesn’t come to USA.
| Year | Country | Ebolavirus species | Cases | Deaths | Case fatality |
| 2012 | Democratic Republic of Congo | Bundibugyo | 57 | 29 | 51% |
| 2012 | Uganda | Sudan | 7 | 4 | 57% |
| 2012 | Uganda | Sudan | 24 | 17 | 71% |
| 2011 | Uganda | Sudan | 1 | 1 | 100% |
| 2008 | Democratic Republic of Congo | Zaire | 32 | 14 | 44% |
| 2007 | Uganda | Bundibugyo | 149 | 37 | 25% |
| 2007 | Democratic Republic of Congo | Zaire | 264 | 187 | 71% |
| 2005 | Congo | Zaire | 12 | 10 | 83% |
| 2004 | Sudan | Sudan | 17 | 7 | 41% |
| 2003 (Nov-Dec) | Congo | Zaire | 35 | 29 | 83% |
| 2003 (Jan-Apr) | Congo | Zaire | 143 | 128 | 90% |
| 2001-2002 | Congo | Zaire | 59 | 44 | 75% |
| 2001-2002 | Gabon | Zaire | 65 | 53 | 82% |
| 2000 | Uganda | Sudan | 425 | 224 | 53% |
| 1996 | South Africa (ex-Gabon) | Zaire | 1 | 1 | 100% |
| 1996 (Jul-Dec) | Gabon | Zaire | 60 | 45 | 75% |
| 1996 (Jan-Apr) | Gabon | Zaire | 31 | 21 | 68% |
| 1995 | Democratic Republic of Congo | Zaire | 315 | 254 | 81% |
| 1994 | Cote d'Ivoire | Taï Forest | 1 | 0 | 0% |
| 1994 | Gabon | Zaire | 52 | 31 | 60% |
| 1979 | Sudan | Sudan | 34 | 22 | 65% |
| 1977 | Democratic Republic of Congo | Zaire | 1 | 1 | 100% |
| 1976 | Sudan | Sudan | 284 | 151 | 53% |
| 1976 | Democratic Republic of Congo | Zaire | 318 | 280 | 88% |
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