Sound The Trumpet : 'God Has a Call on My Life': U.S. Doctor Infected With Ebola Explains

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“'God Has a Call on My Life': U.S. Doctor Infected With Ebola Explains”
by Mail Online
August 4th, 2014

Before relocating his family from Texas to West Africa last year to work in a clinic trying to help contain the Ebola virus epidemic - where he inevitably caught the incurable and highly-deadly disease - Dr. Kent Brantley gave a sermon in his hometown explaining his decision.

The religious reasons for the missionary trip have been revealed as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the father-of-two 'seems to be improving', 24 hours after landing in Georgia from Liberia on Saturday for treatment.

Brantly was transferred amid high security to Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, which is fitted out with one of the most sophisticated containment facilities in America.

He was pictured being helped out of a special ambulance in a hazmat suit and walking into the hospital.

CDS chief Tom Frieden told Face the Nation on CBS on Sunday they hope Brantley will 'continue to improve', but could not say whether they think he will survive the virus.

Arrived: This image, taken from a CNN helicopter, appears to show Dr. Kent Brantly being helped out of an ambulance at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta on Saturday after arriving from Liberia in West Africa

Ebola: Seemingly uneasy on his feet, Dr Kent Brantly (left) is helped into Emory University Hospital in Atlanta by medical staff

Frieden said he did not believe Brantley had inffected his wife and children, who were with him in Liberia.

'When patients are exposed to Ebola but not sick, they cannot infect others ... Our understanding is that they did not have contact with him when he was sick,' Frieden told CBS.

Before Brantley went to Liberia last October, he returned to his hometown of Indianapolis and gave a sermon at the Southeastern Church of Christ, which has been obtained by The Blaze.

'For two years we will live and work and serve among the people who, until the last 10 years of peace, had known nothing but the violence and devastation of war for the previous 20 years,' Brantley told the congregation.

'I've never been to Liberia.

'(I'm going) because God has a call on my life.'

'On difficult days, when I want to give up or when I wonder if I've made the right decision, retelling my story reminds me of how God has brought me to where I am.'

Brantly was able to meet with his wife, Amber, in protective conditions for 45 minutes after arriving in the country on Saturday, NBC reported.

She said he was in 'great spirits and extremely grateful' to be home according to a statement released on her behalf by the Christian charity Samaritan's Purse.

The doctor's sister, mother and father are also at the hospital and it was a 'relief to welcome him home', they said via the charity.

U.S. officials are confident that Brantley and a second patient - aid worker Nancy Writebol, who is expected to arrive in Atlanta on Tuesday- can be treated without putting the public in any danger.

The specialized unit at Emory University Hospital where the two will be contained was opened a dozen years ago to care for federal health workers exposed to some of the world's most dangerous germs.

Nancy Writebol - Kent Brantly - Ebola - COMP.jpg

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Fight of their lives: Dr. Kent Brantly (above) and hygienist aid worker Nancy Writebol are both in grave conditions as they battle incurable Ebola

Now it's being pressed into service for the two seriously ill Americans who worked at a hospital in Liberia, one of the three West Africa countries hit by the largest Ebola outbreak in history.

CDC Director Dr Tom Frieden acknowledged that many Americans are terrified about bringing Dr Brantly and hygienist Writebol back to the U.S. to continue the treatment of their incurable Ebola infections but insisted there was no risk.

'But I really hope that people's fear won't outweigh their compassion. We've got a real challenge in Africa and what we need to focus on is stopping the outbreak there. We will be able to stop it, but its going to take supporting people,' he told CNN.

'And that means if people who are on that supporting mission get sick, we care for them.'

Dr Frieden added: 'Ebola is a huge risk in Africa. It's not going to be a huge risk in the U.S.'

According to WXIA, Emory's isolation unit is on the ground floor and has three beds with the highest standards in negative pressure air handling, HEPA filtration and exhaust.

Efforts have been made to help the two patients with the means available in Liberia - and just hours before the flight to Atlanta was revealed, father-of-two Brantly gave up the single vial of an experimental treatment sent over from the U.S. in order that Writebol - a grandmother and longtime Christian missionary - could receive it instead.

Brantly received a transfusion of the blood of a 14-year-old Ebola survivor who he personally helped to treat. Giving blood transfusions from survivors to still suffering Ebola patients is an established, though not nearly proven, treatment for the largely untreatable disease.

However, on Thursday charity SIM said in a statement that Mrs Writebol's condition had worsened, despite the serum.

Her husband, David, is close by but can only visit his wife through a window or dressed in a haz-mat suit.

'We continue to pray for Nancy's full and complete recovery,' said Bruce Johnson, president of SIM USA. 'Even though her condition has worsened, we know she is receiving the best possible medical care, and we are thankful that she has access to this experimental drug.

'We believe in the power of prayer and ask people around the world not only to pray for Nancy and Kent, but also for everyone affected by this terrible virus.'

'KEEP THEM OUT': SOME TWITTER USERS SAY NO WAY TO PATIENT IN US

The moment CNN reported a plane was leaving the United States to pick up the American volunteers in Liberia suffering from Ebola, Twitter lit up with Americans fuming over the decision.

Many were unable to understand why the patients couldn't simply be treated in Liberia.

'Is it necessary that this person come to the U.S.? Can't this be done other there? Ego trip?' was tweeted.

At least one of the dissenting tweets come from none other than Donald Trump.

'Ebola patient will be brought to the U.S. in a few days - now I know for sure that our leaders are incompetent. KEEP THEM OUT OF HERE!' wrote.

Still others were simply thankful the patient or patients were being taken to Georgia.

'Thank god I don't live in Atlanta,' tweeted @TheMadPatriot.

So should we be worried?

Not if the CDC's best-there-is containment systems and procedures work as they are supposed to.

The patient or patients will be housed in an area of Emory's hospital that is physically separate from other patient areas, according to CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

And inside the air will be filtered and none no staff will have any physical contact whatsoever with an infected patient outside of specialized hazmat-like suits.

However, the move also comes soon after the CDC's recent string of reported mishandlings of other dangerous pathogens--namely athrax and influenza--made headlines--made headlines and even forced the resignation of the head of the government lab that potentially exposed workers to live anthrax.

Dr Brantly was in West Africa with the missionary group responding to the Ebola outbreak when he was diagnosed last week.

His wife and children returned to the United States before Dr Brantly showed any signs of illness.

Samaritan's Purse has evacuated all of its non-essential personnel for the Ebola outbreak.

Meanwhile on Thursday, U.S. health officials warned Americans not to travel to the three West African countries hit by an outbreak of Ebola.

The travel advisory applies to nonessential travel to Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, where the deadly disease has killed more than 700 people this year.

Last week Dr Brantly, 33, was identified as the first American to be diagnosed with Ebola, which kills up to 90 per cent of those it infects.

Mrs Writebol, 60, an educator turned missionary from Charlotte, North Carolina, was the second.

The first stage of the illness is characterised by fever, headaches, nausea, vomiting, a rash and diarrhea.

The second however is haemorrhagic fever in which patients endure difficulty breathing and swallowing and agonising bleeding inside their body.

Blood pours out of their ears and nose and turns their eyes from white to red. They die an agonising death. Generally patients who enter the second stage do not survive.

Mr Johnson said that SIM USA had not yet identified how Dr Brantly and Mrs Writebol had become infected but said that they take ‘extreme safety measures’ and follow guidelines from the Centre For Disease Control.

He said: 'Our hearts just break for them.'

Looking for His glorious appearing! Titus 2:13