Dr. Rick Sacra’s wife, Deb, reads Bible verses to him via video conference/Photo by Max Sacra
The physician that contracted Ebola while treating patients in West Africa continues to recover at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha.
Dr. Rick Sacra has been in the Med Center’s biocontainment unit since Friday. His wife, Deb, is now in Omaha and met with reporters today. She says they have been cared for at every level and Nebraska should be very proud.
Deb Sacra says she first learned that Rick wasn’t feeling well on Saturday, August 30th. He was running a fever.
It was the next week she heard the news that he had contracted Ebola.
Dr. Rick Sacra treating patients in West Africa
Dr. Angela Hewlett, an infectious disease specialist at UNMC, says Sacra’s recovery has been remarkable.
“I would say given his remarkable improvement over the last few days a relapse would be less likely but there is no way to tell,” Hewlett says.
Sacra is receiving an experimental medication. He also received blood transfusions from a recovered Ebola patient.
Dr. Phil Smith, director of the biocontainment unit, says that person possibly had built up antibodies against the virus that Rick Sacra had not yet developed. He says the procedure went well.