American Doctor Recounts Ebola Agony

The American doctor
who made a
miraculous recovery
from a battle with
Ebola has spoken out
in his first sit-down
interview while
recovering at home
with his wife and three
children.
The physician said that he first started feeling
symptoms of the disease at the end of July,
when he came down with a low fever that
made him feel ‘a little off, a little warm and a
little under the weather’.
At first, he hoped it was malaria or dengue
fever, but the results kept coming back
negative until he was eventually tested for
Ebola. The positive test means death for more
than 90 per cent who catch the disease, but Dr
Brantly said he never lost faith even when
doctors started to fear he wouldn’t make it
through the night.
The disease quickly took hold in Liberia, when
he started struggling to breathe and his body
was overcome with shaking and violent shivers.
‘And I said to the nurse who was taking care of
me, “I’m sick. I have no reserve. And I don’t
know how long I can keep this up.” And I said, “I
don’t know how you’re going to breathe for me
when I quit breathing.”
“Because that was the reality. I thought, I– I’m
not gonna be able to continue breathing this
way.” And they had no way to breathe for me if
I had to quit breathing,” Dr Brantly recalled.
Hope finally arrived early last month, when Dr
Brantly and fellow missionary worker Nancy
Writebol, 59, were flown out of Liberia for
treatment at Emory.
The two Americans were the first to receive
ZMapp which helped them fight off the disease.
Within just a few weeks, both were discharged
from the hospital after testing negative for
Ebola in their blood.