Dr. Kent Brantly, the doctor who contracted Ebola while working for the Boone-based organization Samaritan’s Purse in Liberia, has made a full recovery, the organization announced Thursday.
Brantly contracted the disease while working at the Samaritan’s Purse Ebola Consolidated Case Management Center in Monrovia. He was one of two Americans treated at the Eternal Love Winning Africa hospital in Liberia before being transported to the Emory University Hospital in Atlanta.
Following his recovery, Samaritan’s Purse held a press conference where Brantly delivered prepared comments.
“I am thrilled to be alive, to be well, and to be reunited with my family,” Brantly said. “As a medical missionary, I never imagined myself in this position.”
Brantly said his team received word of Ebola cases in Guinea that had spread to Liberia and received their first Ebola patient in June. The number of Ebola cases increased throughout June and July.
Brantly thanked his family, friends, church, Samaritan’s Purse and the isolation unit staff at Emory hospital for his care.
Samaritan’s Purse president Franklin Graham released a statement in which he thanked God for Brantly’s recovery from Ebola and thanked the staff at Emory University Hospital.
“Today I join all of our Samaritan’s Purse team around the world in giving thanks to God as we celebrate Dr. Kent Brantly’s recovery from Ebola and release from the hospital,” Graham said.
Story: Carl Blankenship, Intern News Reporter