American Ebola Patient Returning to 'Normal Self'
Dr. Rick Sacra improves in Nebraska Medical Center's isolation unit.
— -- An American doctor receiving treatment for Ebola at Nebraska Medical Center is improving, hospital officials said today.
Dr. Rick Sacra, a missionary with the group SIM, contracted Ebola white treating pregnant patients in Monrovia, Liberia. He was transported to Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha on Friday for treatment.
"He's kind of becoming his normal self," said Dr. Angela Hewlett, associate medical director of the hospital's bio-containment unit. "Family members continue to speak with Dr. Sacra on a regular basis via video conference and that's a big help for both the patient and his family."
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The bio-containment unit's director, Dr. Phil Smith, said Sacra's lab results are improving and he is beginning to become more "alert" and "interactive."
“We continue to be encouraged by what we’re seeing up to this point,” he said, adding that hospital staff members continue to volunteer to be on the team caring for Sacra.
So far, the Ebola outbreak in West Africa has killed at least 2,296 people and sickened 1,997 more, according to the latest data from the World Health Organization.
Sacra is the third American missionary to become infected in Monrovia, Liberia, following Ebola survivors Dr. Kent Brantly and Nancy Writebol, who were treated and released from Emory University Hospital in August. A fourth American who became infected in Sierra Leone while working for the World Health Organization arrived in Atlanta for treatment at Emory today.
So far, the United States government has sent more than 100 specialists to West Africa to quell the Ebola outbreak and offer support, U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Samantha Power told ABC News. The U.S. has also spent $100 million and promised up to $75 million more.
The Department of Defense will also deploy a field hospital to Liberia, it announced Monday.